. Round about the North pole . rea free from ice, with its wild flowers andherbage and musk oxen. Halls remarkable success in taking a ship to so higha latitude led to the Government expedition of 1875,the first British attempt to reach the Pole since Parrysfailure in 1827. Three ships were employed : the Alert,a seventeen-gun sloop; the Discovery, once the Blood-hound, a Dundee whaler; and the Valorous. TheAlert and Discovery were specially prepared for thevoyage at Portsmouth by Sir Leopold MClintock whowas then Admiral Superintendent of the dockyard;the Valorous, an old paddle sloop, requir
. Round about the North pole . rea free from ice, with its wild flowers andherbage and musk oxen. Halls remarkable success in taking a ship to so higha latitude led to the Government expedition of 1875,the first British attempt to reach the Pole since Parrysfailure in 1827. Three ships were employed : the Alert,a seventeen-gun sloop; the Discovery, once the Blood-hound, a Dundee whaler; and the Valorous. TheAlert and Discovery were specially prepared for thevoyage at Portsmouth by Sir Leopold MClintock whowas then Admiral Superintendent of the dockyard;the Valorous, an old paddle sloop, required little altera-tion, as her duty was merely to carry the stores thatcould not safely be taken by the exploring vessels incrossing the Atlantic and hand them over at Disco. The leader, Captain George Strong Nares, when oneof the Franklin search officers under Kellett at MelvilleIsland, had distinguished himself by a sledge journeyin which he had travelled nine hundred and eightymiles in sixty-nine days and reached 119j° west. SIR GEORGE NARES To face page 24 THE NARES EXPEDITION 249 longitude. He was known as one of the best navigatorsin the Navy, and when called upon to go to the northwas in command of Challenger, then on herfamous voyage of scientific exploration in very differentseas. With him in the Alert was Commander AlbertHastings Markham, whose experience, varied and con-siderable, gained by his spending much of his sparetime within the Arctic Circle, rendered him especiallywell fitted for the position. In command of the Dis-covery was Captain Henry Frederick Stephenson; andthe officers of both ships were, like the crews, allspecially selected. There was no difficulty in themanning. One commanding officer called at the officeat Portsmouth where the men were being entered andasked for advice. An order, he said, has come onboard my ship, directing me to send volunteers forArctic service to this office. What am I to do ? Thewhole ships company, nearly eight hundre
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