Nares wrote: ‘Finding the harbour was suitable in every way for winter quarters, and the abundance of spare arctic vegetation in the neighbourhood giving every promise of game being procurable, I decided to leave the Discovery and push forward with the Alert alone’.

From this base in Discovery Harbour, the officers and men were sent on specific surveying and scientific journeys, of which Plate 64 is one. ‘The mile’, a series of ice pillars with rope handrails, was constructed to allow the men to exercise without getting lost during the winter months.