Cape Frazer, where the Polar and Baffin’s Bay tides meet, was passed on the 19th of August. During the previous three weeks they had advanced 90 miles, or about 4¼ miles a day.
At Cape Collinson a dépôt of 240 rations was landed about 100 yards inshore and 30 feet above the water-line. These provisions were not afterwards disturbed by the expedition.
On reaching Kennedy Channel it was decided to make for open water, which was seen in the middle of the strait. This was reached after some difficulty, and the ships were soon advancing up the channel, which was comparatively free of ice, and was therefore in much the same condition as when seen by Morton. They steered for Cape Morton, at the north-east extremity of Kennedy Channel. Here a dépôt of 240 rations was landed for the use of travelling parties which were to be afterwards dispatched for the purpose of exploring Petermann Fiord.
Hall Basin being filled with ice, the two ships crossed to the western coast, and entered Lady Franklin Sound, where the Discovery was left in a bay named “Discovery Bay.” This point was reached on the 25th of August.
The Alert had to wait until the 28th before an opportunity offered to proceed northwards. A dépôt of 1000 rations was placed on a hillside 30 feet above the sea, on the northern shore of Lincoln Bay. A cairn, which could be seen from the ice a mile from land, was built a few yards inshore of where these provisions were deposited. They were not afterwards disturbed.
Floeberg Beach was reached on the 1st of September, and here the Alert was fated to remain eleven months. The ice was occasionally driven offshore by gales, but after September 16th the ice never left the shore to the westward of the Alert, although to the eastward a large space of clear water remained between the Alert and Robeson Channel whenever the wind prevailed from the westward.
On the 18th of September the thermometer rose to 36° F.; on the 19th it had fallen to 15° F. The first star was seen on the night of the 20th September.
With the object of exploring the land about Cape Joseph Henry, Lieutenant Aldrich, with Frederick and two seamen, Ayles and Simmons, started on the 22nd, with fourteen dogs dragging two sledges laden with fourteen days provisions. The dogs were allowanced at the rate of 2 lb. of preserved meat daily.
On the 26th a large party started with the object of establishing a dépôt of provisions as far in advance to the north-west as possible. This party consisted of two seven-man sledges and one eleven-man sledge; they were provisioned for twenty days. The sledges were weighted to 200 lb. a man. The eleven-man sledge proved too heavy for the young ice, and another seven-man sledge had to be taken instead. The temperature during the first night fell to 1 degree below zero.
On the 5th of October, Lieutenant Aldrich returned with eleven dogs harnessed to one sledge on which his light gear was secured. Everything else had been left a few miles behind to enable him to reach the ship that night. The dogs, sinking as they frequently did in the soft snow up to their muzzles, had proved to be nearly useless, and but for the help of the men the sledge would have had to be abandoned. Aldrich had succeeded in reaching Cape Joseph Henry, and had spent three days in exploring the neighbourhood. The floebergs and rugged ice piled directly against the precipitous face of the cliffs, with an extremely rough pack in constant motion, effectually prevented sledges being dragged round the cape; but fortunately there was a fair prospect of finding a level road overland to the sea on the other side of the cape in the spring. On the 27th September, Aldrich had succeeded in reaching latitude 82° 48′ N., a higher latitude than had ever before been attained, Parry’s 82° 45′ reached in 1827 having now been beaten.