On the 20th March, Mr. Egerton, with Lieutenant Rawson, accompanied by John Simmons and Michael Regan, one of the crew of the _Discovery_, started with a sledge drawn by seven dogs for Discovery Bay, the dogs dragging 78 lb. each. They returned on the 4th April. They arrived at Discovery Bay on the 25th of March, and left again on the 30th. The temperature was very low during this journey, and great difficulties as regards snow and ice had to be overcome. The great sledge-party to the west and north left the ship on the 3rd of April. It consisted of fifty-three officers and men. Each man in the northern division dragged 230 lb., and those of the western division 242 lb. “The programme was as follows: Lieutenant Aldrich, assisted by a sledge-crew under the command of Lieutenant Giffard, was to explore the shores of Grant Land towards the north and west, along the coast-line he had discovered the previous autumn. Commander Markham, seconded by Lieutenant Parr, with two boats, and equipped for an absence of seventy days, was to force his way to the northward over the ice, starting off from the land near Cape Joseph Henry; three sledge-crews, under the commands of Dr. Moss and Mr. George White, accompanying them as far as their provisions would allow.” On the 20th April, Lieutenants Beaumont and Rawson, and Dr. Coppinger, with twenty-one men dragging four sledges weighted to 218 lb. a man, started for the north coast of Greenland. On the 25th of May, Captain Nares decided to go to Cape Joseph Henry to obtain a view of the northern ice from the lofty mountains in the locality. He arrived there on the 29th, and ascended Mount Julia, the highest peak near the sea, which rises to an elevation of not less than 2000 feet. The atmosphere being very clear, an extensive view was obtained. The hills of Greenland, 120 miles distant, were plainly seen in the neighbourhood of Cape Britannia. He was satisfied that no land exists to the north within 50 miles of Cape Joseph Henry, and no high land within 80 miles. In his narrative of this journey he writes:— “Whether or not land exists within the 360 miles which stretch from the limit of our view to the northern axis of the globe is, so far as sledge-travelling is concerned, immaterial. Sixty miles of such pack as we now know to extend north of Cape Joseph Henry is an insuperable obstacle to travelling in that direction with our present appliances; and I unhesitatingly affirm that it is impracticable to reach the North Pole by the Smith Sound route.” Let us now follow the northern sledge-party which left the _Alert_ on 3rd April 1876. The dépôt of provisions at Cape Joseph Henry was reached on 10th April, and the remainder of that day was employed in bringing the provisions off to the sledges, which were left on the ice. Up to this point the northern and western parties had travelled together. Next day they separated, and the two supporting sledges returned to the ship.