On the following day we met the larger party coming out to our assistance, and with their help arrived alongside the "Alert" on the 14th of June, seventy-two days after our departure from the ship. What a contrast did that departure afford to our return! Then, on that bright but cold April morning, all were in the highest spirits, cheerful and enthusiastic, looking forward with confidence to a comparatively successful issue to their undertaking--a fine, strong, and resolute band. Alas! how different was the return! Out of that party of fifteen men, one had gone to his long home, eleven others were carried alongside the ship on sledges dragged by a party despatched to their relief, and only the remaining three were capable of walking.[2] Even they were scarcely able to move one leg before the other, and were, on their return, placed with the others under the doctor's hands. It was, indeed, a sad and terrible calamity with which we had been afflicted, totally unexpected and unparalleled in the annals of Arctic sledging experiences. On our arrival alongside the ship, we were, of course, most warmly welcomed by every soul on board; before entering Captain Nares called for three cheers for our party, and then offered up thanks to Almighty God for having preserved us through many dangers and privations, and for guiding us back to our ship without further loss of life. FOOTNOTES: [1] John Radmore, chief carpenter's mate, and William Maskell, able seaman. [2] Radmore, Jolliffe, and Maskell. CHAPTER XXV. RETURN OF ALL THE SLEDGE TRAVELLERS. "Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost Candies the grass, or calls an icy cream Upon the silver lake or crystal stream, But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth." CAREW. The hearty welcome we received from one and all on board the "Alert," together with the indescribable pleasure of a warm bath, followed by a champagne supper for those whom the doctor reported well enough to indulge in such a luxury, made us all supremely happy; the feeling being increased by the knowledge that our suffering companions were under the tender care of kind and skilful hands, and that all responsibility connected with their treatment had, so far as we were concerned, ceased. Our late hardships and the anxiety we had felt regarding the safe return of the party were almost forgotten, and were it not for the number of cots hanging up outside the ward-room, and the row of beds along the lower deck, each occupied by a sick man, we should almost have felt inclined to regard our late sledging expedition as a dream from which we had suddenly been awakened.