From Archer Fiord, Lockwood passed along the Ella Valley to the base of a glacier 150 feet above the sea. The glacier stretched from side to side of the valley, and was found impassable. Lockwood next decided to try the route via Beatrix Bay. From the head of this bay they passed along a valley to its termination, and then had to turn off to the north up a steep rocky ravine. Here the large sledge had to be left, and a small one brought specially for land-travelling was afterwards used. From this camp they started for Musk-ox Valley on 8th May. The following day’s march carried them to the apparent end of the valley, and they then entered a cañon which seemed to end in a glacier 8 or 10 ten miles distant; but as no other route seemed possible it was followed. This cañon took them into a broad valley with a lake in its centre. The wall of a glacier apparently rose all along the south side of the valley, and the country behind seemed one continuous glacial surface. Travelling in a south-west direction, they found the ice-capped land presented to their view a vertical face of solid ice from 125 feet to 200 feet in height. This wall of ice ran across the country in such a manner that Lockwood named it “The Chinese Wall Glacier,” but later it was designated Mer de Glace Agassiz. The next march brought them to the watershed of Grinnell Land. They now descended a narrow gorge bounded on either side by towering mountains, and finally reached a narrow valley 1000 feet lower down. Passing along this valley, and still rapidly descending, they reached the head of a fiord where the water was salt. This was named “Greely Fiord.” Proceeding about 26 miles down the fiord, they reached their farthest on 13th May, and camped in a heavy snowstorm. By fasting nineteen hours, they were enabled to remain here until the storm abated.
The return journey had to be made on short rations. This party travelled 437 miles during their month’s absence.
The work of exploration was now practically completed, and preparations for the contingency of a retreat southward began to receive serious attention. Greely had already established a large dépôt of provisions at Cape Baird, on the south side of Archer Fiord, and 12 miles from Conger. This work was begun as early as the 1st February. Dr. Pavy protested against the work as entailing unnecessary exposure, and some warm words evidently passed between the doctor and Greely. The latter makes the charge that this was the first of a series by which Dr. Pavy opposed all the work initiated during 1883. The doctor’s objection was no doubt to the work being done during the coldest month of the year. Greely takes great credit for establishing this dépôt 12 miles from the station, but it is only just to the doctor to state that Lockwood in his diary mentions the fact that as early as March 1883 Dr. Pavy and two others of the party were in favour of abandoning all further explorations, and applying their efforts to depositing provisions down the straits to secure their safe retreat in boats in August and September. No mention of this fact is made by Greely. He states that the correspondence between them formed part of his official report, but has no place in his book.
Lockwood also states that, on his return from his North Greenland journey of 1883, Lieutenant Kislingbury’s only thought seemed to be that a sledge-party should be sent down to Littleton Island to have the ship leave her supplies at Cape Sabine instead of at the island, and that in expressing this view Kislingbury merely reflected the latest opinion of the doctor.
The reader may be left to judge what effect it would have had on the ultimate fate of the party had these ideas been carried out.
In order further to insure a safe retreat, Greely decided to bring from Thank-God Harbour the English ice-boat left there by Beaumont in 1876. This boat was brought across the channel by twelve men, who made the trip of 90 miles in six days in a mean temperature of −21°.
On 1st June, Greely being dissatisfied with the manner in which Dr. Pavy had kept the specimens of natural history and the notes concerning them, transferred the work to Lockwood. On the 19th July the bitter feeling between Greely and Dr. Pavy was aggravated by the latter declining to renew his contract, which expired on the 20th July, and refusing to give up his diary. As Dr. Pavy insisted that he was out of service and refused to obey orders, Greely thought it necessary to place him under arrest, with permission to take such exercise as was necessary within a mile of the station.
All preparations for the retreat having been completed by 29th July, an order was issued announcing that Conger would be deserted on 8th August if no vessel should arrive. All private property was to be left behind, except 8 lb. of baggage for each man and 16 lb. for each officer.
The station was abandoned on 9th August, the weather conditions on the 8th not being favourable. The dogs were left behind, and several barrels of seal-blubber, pork, beef, and bread were opened, so that they might maintain life for several months in case the party might be compelled to return to Conger. Three tons of coal remained, and a sufficient quantity of provisions to have supplied scant army rations for one year, with the exception of flour, sugar, vegetables, milk, and butter. The entire collection of natural history specimens and the original records of the expedition were left at Conger.
Cape Baird was reached on 10th August. Here the caches were taken up, and then the launch, with three boats in tow, was steered down Kennedy Channel. The whole party of twenty-five were then in good health, and little could they dream of the horrors they were to undergo.