ch. xxxinj The Route by Smith Sound 
303 
nipped against the land floe 40 miles south of Cape 
York, the floes overlapping each other. Nineteen ships 
were destroyed, but a few escaped by digging deep docks 
in the land ice. A thousand men were encamped on the 
floes, and the loss amounted to £142,000. 
Commander Markham found a very different state 
of things in 1873. The whaling fleet consisted of ten 
ships, the largest being the Arctic of 439 tons. She 
made a very quick passage through Melville Bay, reaching 
the north water on June 9th. This enabled Commander 
Markham to visit Port Leopold, Fury Beach, and Prince 
Regent's Inlet as far as Cape Garry, as well as to learn 
all the mysteries of the industry, and take his share in 
the pursuit and capture of whales. The Arctic returned 
after the capture of twenty-eight whales, yielding nearly 
15 tons of bone and 265 tons of oil, worth £18,925. The 
publication of Commander Markham's most interesting 
narrative much increased the feeling in favour of Arctic 
enterprise. The battle had indeed been a hard and 
long-contested one, but victory was in sight. On Novem- 
ber 17th, 1874, the Prime Minister, Lord Beaconsfield, 
announced that the Government would despatch an 
Arctic expedition for the encouragement of maritime 
enterprise, and for the exploration of the region round 
the North Pole. Nothing could be more satisfactory. 
We had deprecated a mere rush to the Pole itself as 
useless, but we had been constantly urging the explora- 
tion of the region round the Pole for twelve long years. 
But the matter passed into the hands of the Admiralty, 
and all our arguments, supported by those of the various 
learned Societies, were totally disregarded. It was 
announced that the main object of the expedition was 
to attain the highest latitude and, if possible, to reach 
the North Pole ! 
Fortunately, Sir Leopold M'Clintock was the Admiral 
Superintendent at Portsmouth dockyard, where the 
expedition was fitted out, Dr Lyall and Mr Lewis of 
the Assistance (1852-54) being responsible for the pro- 
visions. The Alert, a 17-gun sloop, was strengthened 
and prepared for Arctic service 1 ; and by my advice 
1 Length 160 ft., extreme breadth 33*4 ft., depth of hold 17 ft, 
tonnage 751, nominal h.-p. 60. 
