As early as February 19, 1882, Lockwood and Brainard made a dog-sledge trip to one of the depots, deposited the previous autumn, a journey over the foot-ice of twenty miles. On the 29th of February, Lieutenant Lockwood, accompanied by Brainard, four other men, and two dog teams, made an experimental trip to Thank God Harbor preparatory to his proposed grand expedition along the coast to northern Greenland. Visiting the grave of Charles Francis Hall, Lockwood wrote in his journal the following touching tribute:— “The head-board erected by his comrades, as also the metallic one left by the English, still stands. How mournful to me the scene, made more so by the howling of the winds and the thick atmosphere! It was doubtless best that he died where he did. I have come to regard him as a visionary and an enthusiast, who was indebted more to fortune than to those practical abilities which Kane possessed. Yet he gave his life to the cause, and that must always go far toward redeeming the shortcomings of any man. The concluding lines of the inscription on the English tablet, I think good. ‘To Captain Hall, who sacrificed his life in the advancement of science, November 8, 1871. This tablet has been erected by the British polar expedition of 1875, which followed in his footsteps and profited by his experience.’” Dr. Pavy, accompanied by Sergeant Rice and Eskimo Jens with a dog-sledge, started March 19, 1882, for the north of Grinnell Land. A supporting sledge under Sergeant Jewell accompanied him as far as Lincoln Bay. On April 1, an unfortunate accident to a sledge runner caused a five days’ delay at Cape Union. Sergeant Rice and Eskimo Jens made a forced march back to Fort Conger and secured a new runner. Storms retarded their advance, but in spite of the rough condition of the ice, all supplies were brought up to Cape Joseph Henry and left there April 20. Two days later a violent storm set in, and after it subsided, the party pushed on toward Cape Hecla. A lane of open water was seen extending from Crozier Island round Cape Hecla. As this channel rapidly increased in width, a retreat was decided on, but to his consternation, before land could be reached, Dr. Pavy found himself adrift on a floe in the Polar Ocean. Fortunately the floe was driven against the land near Cape Henry, and after abandoning all articles not absolutely indispensable, he escaped to the mainland, but was obliged to give up further explorations. In the meantime, Lieutenant Lockwood had completed his preparations, and the advance party, consisting of Sergeant Brainard and nine men dragging four Hudson Bay sledges, left Fort Conger April 3, 1882, to be followed the next day by Lieutenant Lockwood with two men and one dog-sledge, under instructions to explore the coast of Greenland near Cape Britannia “in such direction as (he) thought best to carry out the objects of the (main) expedition,—the extension of knowledge regarding lands within the Arctic Circle.”