“The dogs were ravenous for food, and when feeding time came, it was amid blows from the men and fights among the dogs that the distribution was made.”
In spite of serious delays by violent wind and storms, by floes so high that the sledge was lowered by dog-traces; by ice so rough as to necessitate the use of the axe before they could advance, and by widening water cracks which delayed their progress, these men pushed boldly on, and on May 15, 1882, made a world’s record, reaching on that day Lockwood Island, 83° 24´ north latitude, 42° 46´ west longitude. Gaining a considerable elevation, Lockwood unfurled Mrs. Greely’s pretty little silken flag and “for the first time in two hundred and seventy-five years another nation than England claimed the honors of the farthest north, and the Union Jack gave way to the Stars and Stripes.”
From this point the most northerly land seen was Cape Washington; beyond to the north “lay an unbroken expanse of ice, interrupted only by the horizon.” Haven Coast trended to the northeast, in a succession of high, rocky, and precipitous promontories.
Evidences of vegetation and game were found in this high latitude. Lemmings, ptarmigan, foxes, and hares found their way to these desolate shores, and small plants struggled for a foothold in the uncongenial soil.
“As we think of Lockwood,” writes Charles Lanman, his biographer, “at the end of his journey, with only two companions, in that land of utter desolation, we are struck with admiration at the courage and manly spirit by which he was inspired. Biting cold, fearful storms, gloomy darkness, the dangers of starvation and sickness, all combined to block his ice pathway, and yet he persevered and accomplished his heroic purpose, thereby winning a place in history of which his countrymen may well, and will, be proud to the end of time.”[1]
The return was even more arduous than the advance, and as they pursued their weary trail, thoughts wandered to home and creature comforts. “What thoughts one has when thus plodding along!” writes Lockwood in his journal. “Home and everything there, and the scenes and incidents of early youth! Home again, when this Arctic experience shall be a thing of the past! But it must be confessed, and lamentable it is, as well as true, that the reminiscences to which my thoughts oftenest recur on these occasions are connected with eating,—the favourite dishes I have enjoyed,—while in dreams of the future, my thoughts turn from other contemplations to the discussion of beefsteak, and, equally absurd, to whether the stew and tea at our next supper will be hot or cold.”
LAKE HAZEN
Joining the supporting party at Cape Sumner, the entire party, suffering from exhaustion and snow-blindness, reached Fort Conger, June 1, 1882. During the absence of Lockwood, Lieutenant Greely had left Fort Conger, April 26, 1882, and penetrated Grinnell Land, reaching Lake Hazen, a glacial lake, some five hundred square miles in area. Lake Hazen was again visited by Greely in June. “Following up Very River to its source, the farthest reached was 175 miles from the home station, between Mount C. A. Arthur and Mount C. S. Smith, which evidently form the divide of Grinnell Land,—between Kennedy Channel to the east and the Polar Ocean to the west.” Ascending Mount C. A. Arthur, the highest peak of Grinnell Land, Greely stood 4500 feet above the sea, and saw to the north of Lake Hazen snow-clad mountains, and distant country to the southwest was also covered with eternal snows. Lieutenant Lockwood subsequently supplemented Greely’s discoveries of the interior of Grinnell Land with the result that jointly 6000 square miles of territory was examined, an accomplishment which “determines the remarkable physical conditions of North Grinnell Land. It brought to light fertile valleys, supporting herds of musk-oxen, an extensive ice-cap, rivers of considerable size, and a glacial lake (Hazen) of extensive area....”
Traces of Eskimos having wintered at Lake Hazen, as shown by permanent huts, were a source of surprise to the explorers.