306 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [part i 
those of the Discovery. No ship had ever wintered so 
far north before. There was some autumn travelling in 
spite of soft snow, a depot being laid out forty miles from 
the ship. A most severe winter was cheerfully faced, the 
men being kept interested and amused with a school, 
lectures, and other entertainments, while the Royal 
Arctic Theatre was opened again after an interval of 
twenty-one years. The chaplain, Mr Pullen, author of 
Dame Europas School, was fortunately endowed both 
with dramatic and poetic talent, adapting plays with 
much literary skill and writing excellent verses; and 
Dr Moss was an artist of more than ordinary talent. 
In other successful expeditions we have had to deal 
with the work of strong and healthy men. Now w T e 
have to contemplate the heroic, indeed almost miraculous 
efforts of men who attained great results in spite of the 
ravages of a terrible and deadly disease. The seeds of 
scurvy had taken root throughout the winter, and no 
one knew it. The travelling parties had started before 
the calamity became known, and of 121 men in the two 
ships there were 56 cases of scurvy, 42 in the Alert, but 
only 14 in the Discovery, in which ship a larger supply of 
fresh meat was obtained from musk oxen. 
Captain Nares had now to consider how to carry out 
his instructions. He was ordered to reach the highest 
latitude, and if possible the Pole itself. Exploration was 
to be quite secondary. Before him was a frozen sea 
consisting of huge ice masses and lines of heavy crushed- 
up ice, and he expected the pack to break up and be 
in movement in the spring. He did not think that an 
important advance could be made unless a coast-line 
could be found trending north. He accordingly deter- 
mined to send out three sledge parties, one westward, 
another eastward, and another north over the frozen sea, 
though he did not expect that the latter could proceed 
for any great distance. 
A preliminary journey was undertaken to open com- 
munication with the Discovery by the two youngest 
officers, Egerton and Rawson, with the Dane, Petersen, 
and a team of nine dogs. They had hardly gone two 
marches when the Dane collapsed, covered with frost 
bites, and suffering from cramp. The two young officers 
