The time having arrived, the final orders were given for the Arctic exiles to make ready for the first stage of travel leading to their far-distant home. They were now to leave the station at Fort Conger, and, as best they could, find their way to Littleton Island, where they hoped to meet a vessel that would take them back to Newfoundland. They were to depart in boats, viz., the steam-launch Lady Greely, a whale-boat, an English boat of which they had come into possession, and a still smaller affair, that might prove serviceable for special purposes.

The journal kept by Lieutenant Lockwood after his departure from Fort Conger was written in short-hand, as always while in the field, and is a very complete record. In the following pages, only a brief summary of purely personal incidents will be attempted, without presuming to give the phraseology of the youthful explorer.

On the 9th of August, the little fleet pushed off from shore, laden with the twenty-five adventurers and a comfortable supply of provisions. They reached Bellot Island without much trouble, but afterward encountered a good deal of ice, and, while 287 working very hard to get through, Rice accidentally fell overboard, which was for him a poor beginning. The ice continued to be troublesome until the close of the next day, when the boats were so severely nipped that they had to be drawn up on the floe. Afterward, open water appearing all the way across the fiord, the launch and the other boats made a successful crossing nearly opposite Sun Bay. They reached the depot near Cape Baird, at about 2 P. M., up to which hour, from the time of leaving Fort Conger, they had not been able to secure any sleep, nor anything to drink but cold water. Reaching Cape Lieber on the 11th in a snow-storm, they landed on a bluff about a mile from the cape, where they waited for the ice to move, so that they might continue on their route toward the south along the western shore of the strait. The only animals seen in that vicinity were two narwhals, fighting near the shore. The fog now became so very dense that no headway could be made, and this gave them an opportunity to obtain some needed rest. Their next advance was in the midst of a severe storm of wind and snow, in spite of which they reached Carl Ritter Bay on the morning of the 12th. The next morning, while they had open water near the shore, they discovered ice-barriers extending to the south as far as they could see. At this point a young seal was killed, which was greatly enjoyed by all of the party; but this luxury, in the case of Lockwood, was counterbalanced by the discomfort of sleeping on shore without any protection excepting that of his bag. He also spent several nights on a floe-berg, where, 288 by laying his sleeping-bag on a sheep-skin, he slept more comfortably. From the 13th until the 20th, when the party reached Rawlings’s Bay, it was a continual conflict with floating ice, snow-storms, and fog, the monotony of the struggle having been broken by an accident to the launch, and also one to Lieutenant Greely, who had a fall into the water, from which he was rescued without harm. At all the places where they encamped, they had great difficulty in securing a safe harbor for the launch. Having passed across Richardson Bay in safety and reached Cape Collinson, they found about one hundred and twenty, out of two hundred and forty, English rations which had been deposited there, the missing portion having been eaten by the foxes. On the 22d they reached Scoresby Bay, where observations of the strait showed it to be full of floating ice; and in this vicinity they were brought to a halt by the ice-pack near the shore at Cape John Barrow. Here the boats were pulled up on the floe, and, as the thick sludge-ice was all around, no open water in sight, and the supply of coal getting very low, the prospect was gloomy in the extreme. When able to continue on their course, the travelers were still greatly troubled by heavy fogs, and while passing over a space of open water, abounding in floe-bergs which could not be seen, they were in constant danger of being lost. Notwithstanding all these obstacles, they pushed their way onward, and in due time reached Cape Louis Napoleon, Cape Hawks, and Princess Marie Bay, when they were again stopped by the floating ice, and detained by the newly formed ice.
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In his desire to comply with the order as to weight of baggage, Lockwood had left his seal-skin coat at Fort Conger, but this step he afterward regretted, as the weather continued stormy, and he was greatly exposed to the cold. To this was added the misfortune of having a badly fitting seal-skin boot which gave him great pain, so that he had to resort to a pair of moccasins. When the boats were caught in floes and detained for days, the only exercise available was that of walking over the level floes. Some of the men were wont to march around, under the light of the moon, singing aloud their wild and uncouth songs. When tired of walking, Lockwood would creep into a cozy corner of the launch, and pore over a pocket copy of Shakespeare which he had fortunately brought along; and then, after getting into his sleeping-bag, his thoughts would wander far away and find expression in such words as these: “What are they doing at home? How often I think of the dear ones there! The dangers and uncertainties ahead of us are only aggravated by the thoughts of the concern felt by them on my account. Most of us have given up the idea of getting home this fall.”

On the 3d of September, while in the floe below Cape Hawks, Lieutenant Greely held a consultation with Lockwood, Kislingbury, Pavy, and Brainard, expressing the opinion that their situation was critical, and that they were really working for their lives. One of the suggestions was that the launch should be abandoned, and further progress made in 290 the smaller boats along the western shore of the strait; but to this, Greely and the majority objected, still hoping that they might yet be able to reach Littleton Island through a lead or over the young ice. On the 6th the hunter Jans killed his fourth seal, and was rewarded by a drink of rum. After five more days of travel, and while approaching Cocked-Hat Island, there was a great excitement caused by the report that one of the men had heard the barking of dogs, whereupon guns were fired and a flag displayed; but all the commotion ended in nothing. The tides were contrary, the small boat was abandoned, and the outlook was very gloomy. The faithful Esquimaux, Frederick, who had latterly been somewhat unlucky as a hunter, now came to the front by killing a seal that weighed six hundred pounds, receiving the usual drink of rum. On this occasion Lockwood mentioned that he swallowed a cupful of the seal’s blood, and found it somewhat tasteless. On the 5th of September, the party after great labor came abreast of Victoria Head and Cape Albert, and while drifting along on the floe the American flag was hoisted over the launch, and the fire under the engine was put out to save coal, Lockwood enjoying a little needed sleep. On the 7th they came in ............