This narrative has been prepared from official papers and from journals of the officers and men of the Expedition, as well as from valuable private contributions acknowledged in the text. The thread of the story of the Polaris has been drawn chiefly from a compilation made by Mr. R. W. D. Bryan, the Astronomer of the Expedition; the incidents of the ice-floe party have been furnished by the journals and note-books of Geo. E. Tyson, Assistant Navigator, and of others with him on the floe, and by the testimony given before the board organized by the Secretary of the Navy, June 5, 1873.