CHAPTER XI. THE “ALERT” AND “DISCOVERY.” Nares’ Expedition—Wonderful Passage through Baffin’s Bay—Winter Quarters of the _Discovery_—Capital Game-bag—Continued Voyage of the _Alert_—Highest Latitude ever attained by a Ship—“The Sea of Ancient Ice”—Winter Quarters, Employments, and Amusements—The Royal Arctic Theatre—Guy Fawkes’ Day on the Ice—Christmas Festivities—Unparalleled Cold—Spring Sledging—Attempt to reach the _Discovery_—Illness and Death of Petersen—The Ravages of Scurvy—Tribute to Captain Hall’s Memory—Markham and Parr’s Northern Journey—Highest Latitude ever reached—Sufferings of the Men—Brave Deeds—The Voyage Home. The first official communication received from Captain Nares, and written from Disco, stated that on the voyage out, owing to the heavy lading of the Arctic ships, they were extremely wet and uneasy, and that the hatchways had to be frequently battened down during the prevalence of the many heavy gales encountered. The _Alert_ and _Discovery_ each lost a whale-boat. A quantity of loose pack-ice had been met after passing Cape Farewell. Mr. Krarup Smith, the Inspector of North Greenland, and the other Danish officials, had been most courteous and obliging, and had engaged to supply from different stations all the Esquimaux dogs they might require. Passing over some intermediate details not generally interesting, we find that Captain Nares decided to force his way through the “middle ice” of Baffin’s Bay, instead of proceeding by the ordinary route round Melville Bay. On July 24th they ran into the pack, and had the satisfaction, thirty-four hours afterwards, of having completed the passage of the middle ice, an unparalleled feat. “It will ne’er be credited in Peterhead,” said the astonished ice-quartermasters. At Cape York, icebergs, many of them grounded, were noted thickly crowded together. At the south-east point of Carey Island a reserve depôt of provisions, &c., was formed, and the record we have already mentioned as having been recovered by Captain Young was deposited in a cairn. Later, another note was left at Littleton Island. The first ice, in large quantities, was sighted off Cape Sabine on the 30th of July. The pack in the offing consisted of floes from five to six feet thick, with occasionally older and heavier floes, ten to twelve feet in thickness, but always much decayed and honeycombed. The ships were detained at Payer Harbour for three days, watching for an opening in the ice, getting under weigh whenever there appeared the slightest chance of proceeding onwards, but on each occasion being forced to return. On the 4th of August they were enabled to proceed twenty miles up Hayes Sound. A little later, and both ships were for the time hopelessly entangled, and the rudders and screws had to be unshipped. At this period they barely escaped a serious