On the 31st of July, a fresh southwesterly wind had blown the pack off the shore, a clear channel of open water to the southward was hailed with delight, the throbbing of the engines told the men that liberation was at hand, and the _Alert_ bade farewell to her northern home. Progress was slow, and threatened “nips” in the short journey to the _Discovery_ tried the patience of the crew, but on August 5, while yet twenty miles distant from the sister ship, Rawson and two of the men of the _Discovery_ came on board. “We were, of course, delighted to see them and to hear news of our consort,” writes Commander Markham. “From them we learnt that poor Egerton had lost his way, and did not arrive on board their ship until after he had been wandering about for eighteen hours! The news from the _Discovery_ was what we feared. Notwithstanding the large amount of musk-ox flesh procured by them during the autumn and following summer, scurvy had attacked her crew in almost the same virulent manner as it had ours. The return journeys of some of their sledge parties were simply a repetition of our own. Beaumont’s division—the one exploring the northwestern coast of Greenland—had suffered very severely, and we heard with extreme regret that two of his small party had succumbed to this terrible disease. The rest of his men, with himself and Dr. Coppinger, had not yet returned to the _Discovery_, having remained in Polaris Bay to recruit their healths. This was, indeed, a bitter ending to our spring campaign, on which we had all set out so full of enthusiasm and hope. It had the effect, however, of confirming Captain Nares in his resolution to proceed to England.” The excellent work done by the sledging parties from the _Discovery_ may be summed up as follows: Lieutenant Archer had made a thorough survey of Archer Fiord; Dr. Coppinger had visited Petermann Fiord, and Lieutenant L. A. Beaumont made extensive explorations of the Greenland coast. He had travelled to Repulse Harbour, following the coast to Cape Bryant, pushing his way across Sherard Osborn Fiord, he had left all but one man to recuperate and travelled with his single companion as far on the eastern shore as 82° 20´ N., 51° W., which he reached May 20, 1876. The return journey was a fight for life against the encroachments of scurvy; a relief party under Lieutenant Rawson and Dr. Coppinger saved the party, but two men died at Hall’s old quarters at Thank God Harbor. The two ships now fought the good fight against the ice on their homeward journey, boring, charging, and towing as occasion required. “It was with no small amount of thankfulness,” writes Markham, “that on the 9th of September we emerged from the cold grim clutches that seemed only too ready to detain us for another winter in the realms of the Ice King, and that we felt our ship rise and fall once more on the bosom of an undoubted ocean swell.” [Sidenote: _TWO VOYAGES OF THE “PANDORA”_]