The leader, Captain George Strong Nares, when one of the Franklin search officers under Kellett at Melville Island, had distinguished himself by a sledge journey in which he had travelled nine hundred and eighty miles in sixty-nine days and reached 119½° west longitude. He was known as one of the best navigators in the Navy, and when called upon to go to the north was in command of H.M.S. _Challenger_, then on her famous voyage of scientific exploration in very different seas. With him in the _Alert_ was Commander Albert Hastings Markham, whose experience, varied and considerable, gained by his spending much of his spare time within the Arctic Circle, rendered him especially well fitted for the position. In command of the _Discovery_ was Captain Henry Frederick Stephenson; and the officers of both ships were, like the crews, all specially selected. There was no difficulty in the manning. One commanding officer called at the office at Portsmouth where the men were being entered and asked for advice. "An order," he said, "has come on board my ship, directing me to send volunteers for Arctic service to this office. What am I to do? The whole ship's company, nearly eight hundred men, have given in their names." The three ships left Spithead on the 29th of May, 1875, and were all at Godhavn on the 6th of July. Nine days afterwards they left for Ritenbenk of the curious name, which is an anagram of that of Berkentin who was in charge of the Greenland department when it was founded. Here the _Valorous_ parted company to return home after filling up with fuel at the coal quarries on the north side of Disco Island, while the two ships went to Proven to pick up Hans Hendrik, who this time left his wife and children behind him. Through Smith Sound, almost choked with ice, progress was slow and difficult; but the passage was safely accomplished, and so across Kane Sea and up Kennedy Channel. On Washington Irving Island an ancient cairn was found, evidently the work of white men's hands and of great age, as shown by the state of the lichens on it—yet another of the many indications in the Polar regions that there was always a somebody before the first on record. Crossing the mouth of Archer Fiord, a snug harbour was found in 81° 44´, where the _Discovery_ was left to spend the winter, the _Alert_ going on, hampered much by the floes, though helped at last by a south-westerly wind, until she had to stop in 82° 27´ on the shore of the Polar Ocean, at what was named Floeberg Beach, off an open coast and with no more protection during the winter than was afforded by masses of ice ranging up to sixty feet in height aground in from eight to twelve fathoms of water.