In order to attain this advanced post, the present boundary-mark of geographical research in that direction, the total distance travelled was two hundred and seventy-six miles on the outward, and two hundred and forty-five miles on the homeward journey, though the farthest direct distance from the ship did not exceed seventy-three miles. The result of labour so colossal and sufferings so severe would seem to be, that we must consider a long journey over the Polar pack-ice, with sledge and boat, to be impracticable at any season of the year. As the sledges were necessarily advanced each stage singly, we are able to calculate the exact rate of progression which may be expected, if it should be thought desirable to push forward with light sledges, without any additional means of returning later in the season in the event of a disruption of ice in the rear. The maximum attained by Commander Markham was two and three-quarter miles a day; the mean rate being one mile and a quarter.
The outbreak of scurvy rendered Captain Nares very anxious as to the welfare of Lieutenant Aldrich’s company on their return from the westward; and the more so, when it was found that the cairn erected over his depôt of provisions, thirty miles to the north-west, remained untouched on the day appointed for his arrival there. Lieutenant May, with the dog-sledge, and three robust men, were therefore sent to meet him. On the 20th of June the two parties met at the depôt, and signalled the welcome fact to Captain Nares. It was fortunate that Lieutenant Aldrich returned when he did, for on the following day a rapid thaw set in, with the wind from the southward, and the snow-valleys were rendered impassable for sledges for the rest of the season. His party, like Commander Markham’s, were stricken with scurvy, four of them lying helpless on the dog-sledge; and Lieutenant May’s arrival proved most opportune.
Having now assembled all his company on board the Alert, Captain Nares was called upon to decide whether it was possible to carry the work of exploration further, or whether the expedition should return to England. Owing to the absence of any land with a northward trend, and the innavigable character of the Polar pack-ice, he concluded that on neither side of Smith Sound could any ship advance further northward than the Alert had done; and also, that from no secure position in Smith Sound was it possible for sledges to advance nearer to the Pole. If the expedition remained in the vicinity for another season, the exploration of the shores of Grant Land might be pursued to the south-west, and of Greenland to the north-east, but not more than fifty miles beyond the points already attained. In the weakened condition of the crew, and for so small an additional gain, Captain Nares decided that it would be unwise to risk another winter. As soon as the ice broke up, “Ho for merry England!”
A regular thaw did not set in until the last week of June. Water flowed in the ravines on the 1st of July. After that date the thaw gradually extended, and increased in rapidity; and on the 23rd a strong south-west wind drove the pack a mile away from the shore. On the 26th a cairn was erected on the shore, and a record of the work of the expedition deposited in it; and on the 31st, a passage having been cleared through the winter-barrier of icebergs, the Alert, with a strong south-west wind filling her canvas, pushed out into Robeson Channel on her homeward voyage. After a run of two miles along-shore, through a fairly open way between the pack-ice and what Dr. Kane calls “the ice-foot,” she was checked in her course by a heavy floe one and a half mile in diameter, which almost touched the land; and no other shelter being available, she lay up in a small cove or creek, among a group of icebergs that had gone ashore in the shallows.
The obstructive floe showed signs of movement early on the morning of August 1st; and soon afterwards went away to the northward at the rate of a mile and a half an hour, grinding along the ice-foot somewhat alarmingly as it advanced towards the ship. Steam being up, however, the Alert cast off her moorings, and succeeded in edging between the land and the floe; while the latter swung round in-shore with a violent jerk, close to the position which the ship had previously occupied.
We may note here the difference which Captain Nares insists upon between an ordinary floe, such as is commonly met with in Arctic waters, and the ancient Polar Sea ice. The former seldom exceeds six feet in thickness, and breaks into fragments against an obstruction, or may be charged by a steamship; but the latter, being some eighty or one hundred feet thick, lifts all impediments out of its course,—or, so to speak, throws them disdainfully away. “Such was the case on this occasion: the Polar floe, which,” says Captain Nares, “we only escaped by a few yards, on nipping against the heavy breastwork of isolated floebergs lining the coast, some of them forty feet high and many thousand tons in weight, which had lately formed our protection from the smaller ice-pieces, tilted them over one after another, and forced them higher up the land-slope, like a giant at play, without receiving the slightest harm itself—not a piece breaking away. It was most providential that, by its twisting round, the Alert was enabled to escape out of the trap in which she was enclosed.”
The shore here presented a formidable line of ice-cliff, from twenty to forty feet in height, striking down into clear blue water ten to twenty fathoms deep. The Alert kept onward, so close to the cliff that the boats hung at her quarter frequently touched it, until again brought to a stop near Cape Union by the accumulation of the pack. Her captain, however, was able here to secure her abreast of a large stream, the current of which had undermined the ice-cliff for some fifty yards, and floated it off to sea, leaving a kind of cove or harbour where the ship could be laid alongside the beach in such a manner that, if the pack struck her, it could only force her on shore. The reader of Arctic voyages will remember that a somewhat similar position was once occupied by Sir Edward Parry’s ship, under somewhat similar circumstances.
When the tide had turned, and began to flow southward, it broke up the ice all around Cape Union, and formed a narrow water-way, which offered Captain Nares a chance of escape. Steam was got up immediately, but, owing to unavoidable delay in shipping the rudder, the ice closed in before the ship could be carried round. Her last stage was worse than her first; for she was now cut off from her safe little port, and no better shelter was available than a slight hollow or break in the ice-cliff. Here, however, she was brought-to, with the ice-blocks swirling past her at a distance of twenty yards. At low water Captain Nares cast off, and bored some way into the pack, so that the Alert might drift round the cape with the southern tide. At about a quarter of a mile from the land, she drove along with the ice; and when the tide slackened, steamed out of the pack before it began to set to the northward. Then, keeping close in to the ice-foot, she kept slowly on her course to the southward, the water-way broadening as she approached Lincoln Bay, which was crossed without difficulty. When within five miles of Cape Beechey, the tide turned; but after a short delay a channel opened, allowing the ship to round the cape. At this point the ice-cliff ends, and the land slopes gently to the shore—which is protected by a barrier of floebergs, similar to, but smaller than, those which line the shore of the Polar Sea. Here the ship was made fast in three fathoms water, within twenty yards of the shore, about a mile to the south of the cape.
We dwell on these particulars in order that our readers may form some idea of the difficulties of Arctic voyaging. The words, “She forced her way through the ice,” afford no conception whatever of the obstacles that have to be overcome, and the dangers that have to be avoided, by a ship navigating in the midst of pack-ice and ice-floes; or of the skill and vigilance and patience on the part of officers and men, by which only can the enterprise be brought to a successful issue.
We are told that on August the 4th snow-squalls blew from the south-west. As the ice had closed in around the ship, holding it in a vice, the sportsmen of the party landed, and visited some neighbouring lakes in search of game. They found a number of wild geese, and killed fifty-seven, which supplied a welcome addition to the ordinary bill of fare. Mr. Egerton and a seaman were sent off to the Discovery, then about twenty miles distant, with orders for her to prepare for the homeward voyage. We have already related how they reached the ship in safety.