Greely spent only twenty minutes on the top of Mount Arthur. The temperature was far below zero, and he was in danger of freezing. When he began to descend, he decided to slide down a precipice a hundred feet in height, in order to save a long walk around the snowdrifts. Luckily he landed in the soft snow. At the foot of the mountain Greely met his companions, and they returned all together to Fort Conger, well pleased with their journey.
The next year Lieutenant Lockwood crossed Grinnell land, and on the western coast discovered a large fiord which he named Greely fiord. Both north and south of this region were large ice caps, which constantly discharged glaciers into the lakes and fiords. At Lake Hazen, as well as at many other places on the island, abandoned Eskimo huts were found, showing that the Eskimos had at one time occupied the island; and many relics of these people were collected, among them a stone lamp, a bone spear-head, and a sledge. But at this time the island was entirely uninhabited.
XIV. FARTHEST NORTH OF THE GREELY PARTY
1882
While Greely was exploring Grinnell land, another party from Fort Conger, under Lieutenant Lockwood, had forced its way across Robeson channel to the Greenland coast. Lockwood’s party proceeded northward in the face of many severe trials. The thermometer registered 81° below the freezing point; add to this rough ice and severe winds, and we may faintly imagine the suffering endured.
During a snowstorm the men were obliged to dig a hole in a snow bank and crawl into it for protection. But the opening soon filled up with drifting snow, and the air became so foul that the men were glad to creep out again. Sometimes the wind blew them over while they were at work, and once a fierce gust lifted one of the dog sledges, with its load of two hundred pounds, from the ground. Nevertheless, on April 27, 1882, the party reached Cape Bryant, where they camped and proceeded to explore the surrounding country. The men of the supporting party, as had been agreed, turned back at this point and returned to Fort Conger.
An Arctic Snowstorm.
Then Lieutenant Lockwood, Sergeant Brainard, and an Eskimo named Christianson set off to the north to Cape Britannia, taking with them enough food to last twenty-five days. The ice was in fair condition for pushing rapidly forward, and they soon reached Cape Britannia, a towering cliff. The men climbed to the top and gazed around over the snow-covered mountain peaks. Then they descended and traveled on over land never before trodden by white men. They crossed Nordenskjöld inlet and Chipps inlet, and at length reached a new island, which was named after Lieutenant Lockwood. It lies in latitude 83° 24ʹ north, but four hundred and fifty miles from the pole, and was at that time, 1882, the northernmost point yet attained by any nation.
For three hundred years England had held the honor of penetrating farthest north. From the time of Henry Hudson, who, in 1607, reached latitude 81° 30ʹ, the English sailors had succeeded in going nearer to the pole than the explorers of any other nation. In 1875, an English Arctic expedition under Captain Nares, reached latitude 83° 20ʹ north. Now, Lockwood and Brainard had gained for America the glory of penetrating the farthest north.