THE HOWGATE EXPEDITION TO LADY FRANKLIN BAY. 685 
(GE OCiRVA leis Wal, 
THE HOWGATE EXPEDITION TO LADY FRANKLIN BAY. 
[The following Report of the Board appointed to consider Captain How- 
gate’s plan and preparations for his second Polar Expedition, shows what extreme 
care was taken in the selection of a proper vessel and in all the details connected 
with the fitting out of the expedition. —EbpiTor. | 
A Board of Officers and men of experience in Arctic matters was convened 
at the Signal office in Washington D. C., May 27, 1880, by direction of the chief 
Signal Officer, to consider and report of a ‘‘Memorandum of plan of Arctic 
work,’ submitted by Captain Howgate in connection with the proposed expedi- 
tion to Lady Franklin Bay. 
The Board reported as follows : 
1. With respect to the provisions and fuel for the steamer Gudnare, and 
the advisability of having a surgeon for its return trip, the Board is of the opin- 
ion that these matters should be left to the discretion of the Navy Department. 
2. Mr. H. C. Chester, a member of the Board, who accompanied the 
Polaris Expedition, and who is now superintending the fitting out of the Gulnare, 
states that it is the best adapted for the purposes designed of any vessel that has 
entered the Arctic seas. 
3. The permanent party to remain at the station near Lady Franklin Bay, 
to be composed of three commissioned officers and twenty-five men, appears suf- 
ficiently large. These will be available for scientific work—three officers, one 
surgeon, one astronomer, one photographer, and three sergeants of the Signal 
Corps. A portion of the scientific work to b= performed has already been pro- 
vided for by a previous Board. 
4. It is understood by the Board that the discovery and development of 
new whaling grounds will be incidental to the duties of exploration. 
s. There is little reason to anticipate any danger to the permanent station ; 
it is to be provisioned for two years or more. The fo/aris left abundant stores 
on the opposite side of the channel, distant from Lady Franklin Bay some thirty 
or thirty-five miles; also the English Expedition, under Nares, left at Cape 
Hawk ‘‘a large quantity of biscuit.’ . 
6. The providing for the safety of sledge and traveling parties will, of ne- 
cessity, have to be left to the discretion of the othcer commanding the expedition. 
Tents are the only shelter for such parties that can well be transported, but such 
parties will build igloes, or snow houses, when the materials are at hand. 
7. The means of transportation proposed—two whale boats, one steam 
yawl, six dog sledges, and thirty dogs—are considered ample. 
8. The detailing of selected enlisted men forthe body of the expedition 
promises many advantages. Of the men already selected, two have been sea- 
