'JACK,' said a seaman to his comrade, when they first fell in with ice in one of M'Clintock's Arctic voyages, 'you look as pale as if you had seen a ghost.' 'I

* 1. Papers and Correspondence relating to the Equipment and Fitting-out of the Arctic Expedition of 1875; including the Report of the Ad

miralty Arctic Committee. Presented to both Houses of Parliament, 1875.

2. Further Papers, 1876.

3. Arctic Expedition of 1875-6. Reports of Sir George Nares, K. C.B., Captain Stephenson, C.B., and the Sledging Journals of Captain Markham, Commander Beaumont, and "Commander Aldrich.

4. Report of Captain Allen Young, R. Y.S.,

Arctic Yacht Pandora.'

5. Arctic Manual and Instructions; suggested by the Arctic Committee of the Royal Society. London, 1875.

6. Arctic Geography and Ethnology. By the President and Council of the Royal Geographical Society. London, 1875.

7. Oesterreichisch-Ungarische Nordpol-Expedition in den Jahren 1872-1874. Von Julius Payer. Wien, 1876. (The same translated into English. London, 1876.)

NEW SERIES.-VOL. XXV., No. 4

They started on the 29th of May 1875, with orders to reach the Pole, if possible, and perform certain other duties which were duly set forth for their guidance. They returned in October 1876, and though they did not reach the Pole, they achieved many of the scientific results that those most able to judge think possible or necessary, and, what is far better, have exhibited to the world a model of quiet heroism under privations the extreme nature of which are by no means as yet generally known. A great number of expeditions have been at various times sent out for the purpose of Arctic exploration; but this is the first, the avowed object of which was to get to the Pole; none has ever been so well equipped, and, it must in truth be added, none has ever broken down in health so completely in so short a time.

The explanation of this apparent paradox is to be found in the frightful nature of the toil which they underwent. It may safely be asserted that in no former journeys has the attempt been made to travel for any distance over ice so formidable as that of the Polar Ocean, on whose desolate shores the 'Alert passed the winter of 1875.

The instructions under which the expedition sailed are given at length in the Papers and Correspondence relating to the Equipment and Fitting-out of the Arctic Expedition of 1875,' presented to both Houses of Parliament.

It will be only possible for us within the limits of space at our disposal to give a short account of some of the more prominent geographical and scientific questions upon which the expedition was instructed to report.

We have often heard the question asked, what was the use of despatching such an expedition, and we have even heard it disputed whether any object likely to be attained by it was worth the expenditure of money, labor, hardship, and perhaps life involved in the undertaking. The following pages contain such an answer as we are able to give to such inquiries. It must be understood at the outset that the reports before us deal only, or at least mainly, with the outside of things. Facts have been amassed by careful observers, but they have not yet been classified and arranged. All we can do is to deal with such de

men.

tails as are before us up to the present time. The deeds actually accomplished remind us somewhat of the American gentleman who could 'dive deeper and come up drier' than any other man. The expedition has contrived just to surpass all previous explorers at all points. The 'Alert' has been further north than any other vessel in the world. Captain Markham and Mr. Parr have been nearer the Pole than any other The crews have passed through the longest period of darkness without seeing the sun that has ever been faced by human beings, and they have endured the most intense cold that has ever been registered. All this is very satisfactory, though some disappointment has been expressed that they did not actually attain the Pole. Nevertheless, on all hands, full justice has been done to the gallantry of officers and men, and every one gives a willing tribute of admiration to the personal bravery and self-devotion with which hardships and privations have been borne. It need hardly be said to those who are acquainted with the real objects to be attained that failure to reach the actual Pole is not of itself a matter of regret. No doubt the national vanity would have been flattered if the English flag had actually waved from a staff planted over the axis of rotation of the earth; but it would have been but an empty boast, and one for which the English people would not wish any officer to sacrifice the lives of his people or the safety of his ship.

It is only by very slow degrees and by continual steady perseverance that any reliable lines can be traced on the great blank tract which in Polar charts betrays the extent of our ignorance; and it would be as easy to fall into the mistake of undervaluing the achievements of our explorers as to err in the opposite extreme. It is true that the sledging parties of Nares and Stephenson have only laid down a few miles of coast, have corrected, within a limited area, some geographical errors committed by their predecessors, have exploded at least one theory to which some geographers fondly clung, have confirmed the results previously arrived at by other observers of Polar magnetic phenomena, and have made some interesting collections of Arctic fauna and flora. This is all.

But it is as much as they could reasonably be expected to do. The extent of exploration which can be accomplished by a single expedition can be but smail when a mile a day is the utmost that the strenuous exertions of a party of picked men can achieve; and even that insignificant result is gained by toil so incredibly severe as to prostrate, in the space of a few days' journey, one party after another of the finest men in our navy with fatigue and disease.

It is, indeed, a matter for inquiry whether, as the Pole is approached, some climatic influences do not exist detrimental to health and life which are not in operation in lower latitudes. In M'Clure's expedition, more than three years occurred before the first death from scurvy took place. In Kane's expedition, two men only died in two years. The Enterprise' was four winters out; the Investigator,' five; the 'Assistance,' 'Resolute,' and 'North Star,' three each. In Sir John Ross's expedition, the 'Victory' was out three years, during which she was two years beset by ice in the Gulf of Boothia, and in all that time only made seven miles in advance. But in each of these instances it was not till the third year that despondency and its concomitant, sc irvy, attacked them. Most of these were government expeditions; and in all, the general health of the crews excellent. Indeed, Dr. Donnet, Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals, who was surgeon on board the 'Assistance' in the Arctic expedition of 1850-51, declares that, of all the seas that are visited by ships of the British Navy, the Arctic is the most healthy. In the face of these facts, thus vouched by the most reliable authority, we have the startling result that one season was sufficient to break down the picked crews of the 'Alert' and the 'Discovery.'

was

Like noble fellows as they are, they would not have hesitated to remain if any good purpose could be served by doing so; but under the circumstances it was a matter of the commonest prudence to bring them home. It is due to Sir George Nares to say that he had no option in the matter. You should use your best endeavors to rejoin your consort in the navigable season of 1876, and, in company with her, return to England,

provided the spring exploration has been reasonably successful.' Such were the positive instructions given to him by the Admiralty on his departure; but that is not the present point. The question is whether the picked crews of the Arctic ships were physically fit to remain out a second year; and, in point of fact, they were not. It is true that they had a winter of unprecedented length; but neither that, nor the absence of certain precautions, of which we have heard a great deal in the newspapers, are enough to account for the break-down of so fine a body of men in so short a time, unless we suppose the climate to have been in some manner, not as yet explained, injurious to health.

But to our point. Why should any Arctic expedition be undertaken at all? It is not sufficient to say that England has always taken the lead in maritime adventure, and been the pioneer in many wild lands and dangerous seas. If that were all, we might leave Polar expeditions to private enterprise, which has always been sufficient to spur our countrymen on. Love of excitement has been quite inducement enough when danger was to be faced or honor to be won; but in this instance ships have been fitted out at the expense of the State, officered by the pick of our commanders, and the step met with the cordial approbation of the English people. It must be confessed, that fear of seeing our laurels. wrested from us by the generous enthusiasm of our neighbors had at least some-thing to do with the decision arrived at by the English Government. The Aus-trians had sent out a most adventurousexpedition, which reached a very high latitude north-west of Novaya-Zemlya;. but they were unable to follow up their good fortune. Germany had done good work in East Greenland. Sweden had sent an expedition to the north of Spitzbergen, which nearly attained to the: same latitude reached by Parry six-andthirty years before. The Americans, also, despatched a number of expeditions between the years 1859 and 1873; the last, under the brave but ill-fated Hall, attained, through Smith Sound, to the highest latitude ever reached by a ship till then, and even laid claim to establish. positions in the direction of the Pole far

above the eighty-third parallel of latitude.

The partial success of these, turned the scale in favor of the equipment of an English expedition. The Government were already more than half inclined to the scheme, which had the support.of the most distinguished Arctic explorers and men of science in England. The news of Hall's discoveries, with very inadequate means, finally determined them to proceed. Popular sentiment is a factor not to be despised in such matters, and the light in which the expedition was regarded by the Navy was shown by the fact that half the Navy List applied to be employed, and men volunteered in such crowds for the ships that the officers fortunate enough to be ultimately selected for the command were able to select the very flower of our sailors. But although the Alert' and 'Discovery' left our shores in the midst of a chorus of popular enthusiasm, the time of national excitement had been preceded by ten years of hesitation. The tragic fate of Franklin and his brave companions, and the hardships endured by successive parties sent to relieve him or find traces of his fate, for many years stayed the hand of those with whom rested the responsibility of ordering new expeditions. It was natural that, while that supreme tragedy was still fresh in the minds of men, they should remember rather the responsibility incurred than the glory to be won, and though many experienced officers who had taken part in the various relief expeditions were ready to venture again to the scenes of their former perils, the signal was still withheld.

It is a notable fact in the history of Arctic exploration that those who have once engaged in it seem to find a strange fascination in the pursuit. No one who has once ventured into the mysterious region can resist the longing that impels him to go there again; in vain the Ice King parades his terrors, in vain the dreary monotony of a five months' night casts its warning shadows over the path. An 'Old Arctic' is always ready to sally forth afresh in pursuit of the Phantom Pole which has always eluded his pursuit. As regards the present expedition, it may be truly said that the time was ripe for a further attempt on the part of Eng

land. Public opinion, both popular and scientific, was in favor of it; and it was generally felt that, unless our country was content to abandon the leading place she has always held in maritime discovery, it was time for her to bestir herself.

The conditions of Arctic exploration are vastly different now from what they were when Franklin and his gallant companions set forth. Steam has made it easy to advance under circumstances which would have stopped the ships of earlier mariners. Accumulated experience has mapped out practicable highways through wilds where in Franklin's time each step in advance was the result rather of fortunate experiment than of certain knowledge. Sledge travelling has been brought almost to a science, and the equipment of an Arctic ship is as well understood as that of an ordinary surveying vessel. It was said by those who were most active in promoting the expedition that the two great risks of former voyages, starvation and scurvy, might be absolutely eliminated from the list of probable casualties. Unfortunately in the case of the latter malady the assertion has not been fulfilled, but it is undoubtedly true that, when once a proper system of relief and communication between the ships was arranged, the contingency of death by hunger did not assume any formidable proportions.

The problems presented by science for solution, which an Arctic expedition might be reasonably expected to solve, are not very numerous or very important. They might set a few doubts at rest, and put a few theories to the test of actual experiment; but they were not likely to break ground in any field of knowledge hitherto unworked; and though our explorers have done good honest work in several ways, none, probably, would be more ready than themselves to acknowledge that the part of their duty which has been performed with the greatest satisfaction, has been that of planting the English flag several miles nearer the Pole than the foot of man has ever trod before. We may assign high-sounding reasons, and keep up our dignity about the matter, but the adventurers may be well assured that their pluck and daring, far more than