Early in March, 1876, an attempt was made to communicate with the _Discovery_. Lieutenants Egerton and Rawson were selected for this journey and were accompanied by Petersen, the Danish interpreter and sledge-driver. On the 12th of March, in a temperature of 30° below zero, the party left the _Alert_, carrying messages, letters, and instructions to those aboard the sister ship. The temperature fell very low soon after their departure, and on the third day they unexpectedly returned with the poor Dane utterly prostrate and helpless on the sledge. “I cannot do better than relate the sad story in Lieutenant Egerton’s own words,” writes Markham. “We read in his official report, that not five hours after they had left the ship ‘frost-bites became so numerous, that I thought it advisable to encamp.’ This was only the beginning of the story, for they appear to have passed a comparatively comfortable night. At any rate they were up early the next morning and again under weigh; at about one o’clock, when they halted for lunch, Petersen complained of cramp in his stomach, and was given some hot tea. He had no appetite, which perhaps was as well, for we read of the bacon, which is always used for lunch: ‘We were unable to eat it, being frozen so hard that we could not get our teeth through the lean.’ They still continued their journey, encountering some very rough travelling, which necessitated severe physical labour on the part of the two officers. ‘The dogs were of little or no use in getting across these slopes, as it was impossible to get them to go up the cliff, and Petersen being unable to work, Lieutenant Rawson and I had to get the sledge along as best we could.’ Towards the end of the day we read: ‘Petersen began to get rather worse, and was shivering all over, his nose being constantly frost-bitten, and at times taking five or ten minutes before the circulation could be thoroughly restored. Lieutenant Rawson had several small frost-bites, and I escaped with only one.’ [Illustration: THE CREW OF THE “VEGA” _From “The Voyage of the Vega,” Macmillan & Co., Ltd., London_] “On halting for the night,” continues Markham, “directly the tent was pitched, they sent Petersen inside with strict injunctions to shift his foot gear and get into his sleeping bag, whilst they busied themselves in preparing supper and attending, to the dogs; but when they entered the tent they found ‘that he had turned in without shifting his foot gear, was groaning a good deal, and complaining of cramp in the stomach and legs.’