The following spring, to anticipate the course of the narrative, another effort was made to reach Cape Washington, but so rapid a thaw set in that the party had to turn back before reaching as far as Lockwood Island. They, however, secured all the relics of Lieutenant Beaumont's party, including a British ensign, which were faithfully preserved throughout the terrible privations the expedition was fated to undergo. These relics were subsequently forwarded by the United States Government to the British and are now in the Greenwich Museum with the Franklin mementoes, treasured not only as emblems of British courage but also of American good-will. Of the memorable record left by Lieutenant Beaumont at Repulse Bay, its perusal by the members of the Greely expedition is thus described by the leader:-- "This brilliant record of British courage, discipline, devotion to duty and endurance, must ever affect deeply all who may read its full details. To the men of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, who justly appreciated the terrible contingencies of the situation, and who bore similar dangers, this story, as told by the gallant Beaumont, was full of deep and assuring interest." The American festival of "Decoration Day" occurred while the party were at Polaris Bay, the place where the two _Discovery_ men who died were buried. The festival is one for the commemoration of American heroes, and on that day throughout the United States all the graves of their heroes are decorated. Here on the bleak, barren Greenland coast they remembered the festival, and kept it by taking the Stars and Stripes from the sledge poles and draping them over the rough monuments erected above the remains of the two British sailors.