As the season was late Captain Nares took the middle pack, and reached the north water of Baffin’s Bay in 34 hours. At the end of July a small depôt was left at Cape Isabella, the western entrance of Sir Thomas Smith’s Channel, but soon afterwards the ships were beset near Cape Sabine, and detained by the ice for five days. At last there was a lead to the north, but the _Alert_ was for some time in great danger of being forced up the side of a berg. There were heavy falls of snow and much danger from the drifting floes, and on August 8th they had to cut a dock in order to avoid a serious nip. At length Lady Franklin Bay was reached, and fixed upon as the winter quarters of the _Discovery_. The _Alert_ pushed on, and fortunately a south-west gale drove the pack off the shore, and enabled Captain Nares to take a narrow channel along the coast, and reach “Floe-berg Beach” facing the great polar ocean, where the vessel was hauled inside some huge masses of ice, which from their size and formation, received the name of “floe bergs.” Here, in 82° 30′ N., within a hundred yards of a low beach, were her winter quarters, about 50 miles from those of the _Discovery_. No ship had ever wintered so far north before. There was some autumn travelling in spite of soft snow, a depôt being laid out forty miles from the ship. A most severe winter was cheerfully faced, the men being kept interested and amused with a school, lectures, and other entertainments, while the Royal Arctic Theatre was opened again after an interval of twenty-one years. The chaplain, Mr Pullen, author of _Dame Europa’s School_, was fortunately endowed both with dramatic and poetic talent, adapting plays with much literary skill and writing excellent verses; and Dr Moss was an artist of more than ordinary talent. In other successful expeditions we have had to deal with the work of strong and healthy men. Now we have to contemplate the heroic, indeed almost miraculous efforts of men who attained great results in spite of the ravages of a terrible and deadly disease. The seeds of scurvy had taken root throughout the winter, and no one knew it. The travelling parties had started before the calamity became known, and of 121 men in the two ships there were 56 cases of scurvy, 42 in the _Alert_, but only 14 in the _Discovery_, in which ship a larger supply of fresh meat was obtained from musk oxen.