THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 223, 9 January 1877, Page 2

THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

The Daily JVcifs has tlie following particulars about the Arctic Expedition, which has just returned. Its correspondent at Valcntia sends the following telegram, dated Friday week :—" This morning the Alert, one of the two vessels which luffc England 17 months ago on the Arctic Expedition, arrived in this harbour. The following are the details of her voyage : After leaving Port Foulke on the 29th •July, '1875, she entered the ice off Cape Sabine. After a severe and continuous struggle, she reached the north side of Lady Franklin Bay, where the Discovery was left in winter quarters. The Alert reached the limit of navigation on the shore of the Polar Sea, the ice varying up to 150 feet thick. President's Land does not exist. She wintered in 82deg. 27min. The sun was absent. 142 days. Spring travelling was intensely laborious. A detachment journeying northward over the Polar floes was absent 70 days, and reached 83deg. 27min. The party rounded Cape Columbia, the extreme northern point of American land, and traced the shore 220 miles west. Greenland was explored far to the eastward. The sledgcrs all suffered from scurvy. They met. no game. Hans Christian Petersen died of frost-bite. George Porter, of the Alert, and James Hand and Charles Paul, of the Discovery, died while sledging. There were no Esquimaux met with. All traces of them ceased north of 81deg. 52min. No icebergs were seen beyond Cape Union. Only one bear was seen during the absence from the ship. So rugged was the ice that sledges could only advance one mile a day ; but they reached latitude 80 deg. 20 min. after a terrible struggle, being within 400 miles of the Pole. While in winter quarters parties from the ship made rich natural-history collections, and numbers of valuable scientific observations were taken. Coal, too, was found of excellent quality near the Discovery, and beautiful fossil remains of coral were found in the extreme north. They experienced the coldest -weather ever registered, the temperature being 59 degrees below zero for a fortnight. The extreme lowest temperature on any day was 104 degrees below freezing point. The Alert parted company with the Discovery on October 10. The latter has gone on to Queenstown. The health of the crew, with the exceptions referred to above, has been. good. Frost-bites were severe, but not numerous. Scurvy attacked several sledge parties of the Expedition. There was no sickness on the ice. Petersen, the

"todays after the ainputaiacm ■'-• X o^f 'bothiffpet from Among t£<£ buriosities brought Home by the of is a specimen of wheat, deposited 2 ' by the Polaris when that vessel was quartered in the Arctic regions. Both officers and crew speak in unmeasured praise of Captain Nares. He has in anxious times been on deck, with the exception of a few hours, night and day for thirty days, encouraging and assisting his well-tried crew. Upon arriving at Valentia, Captain Nares, with three officers, left immediately by special train to meet the evening express from Killarney, en route to London. He takes with him many interesting relics [of the Expedition, photographs, charts; and a touching memorial has been erected by the officers and crew of the Expedition over the graves of their deceased comrades, photographs of which have been taken and preserved. The absence of fresh meat for such a lengthened period has been nmch felt by all, and, next to Home, the sight of mutton has been the long desired wish of their hearts. An old whaler of great Arctic experience, who has been no less than 25 times to the Arctic Circle, declares that no other expedition has ever obtained such satisfactory results as the present, and its success has been much more than he anticipated. He says the Pole, of which they were within 400 miles, is surrounded by ice the thickness of which he actually gave as 220 feet. The opinion of all connected with the Expedition is that to reach the Pole, or to do more than has been done by the Alert and Discovery, is simply impossible.