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LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY LECTURE NOTE SERIES
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 Contents

List of Participants vi

Preface ix

José Burillo, Sean Cleary and Claas E. Röver

Obstructions for subgroups of Thompson’s group V 1

Ioannis Emmanouil
Groups of homological dimension one 5

Daniel S. Farley and Bruce Hughes

Braided diagram groups and local similarity groups 15

Ross Geoghegan and Marco Varisco

On Thompson’s group T and algebraic K-theory 34

Robert P. Kropholler
Special cube complexes (based on lectures of Piotr Przytycki) 46

Yash Lodha
A hyperbolic group with a finitely presented subgroup
that is not of type F P3 67

Jon McCammond
The structure of Euclidean Artin groups 82

Volodymyr Nekrasheyvych
Finitely presented groups associated with expanding maps 115

Olympia Talelli
On characteristic modules of groups 172

Mark Ullmann
Controlled algebra for simplicial rings and algebraic K-theory 182

v
 List of Participants

Azer Akhmedov NDSU

James Belk Bard
Robert Bieri Frankfurt
Collin Bleak St Andrews
Brian Bowditch Warwick
Martin Bridson Oxford
Jeff Burdges St Andrews
José Burillo Barcelona
Kai-Uwe Bux Bielefeld
Montserrat Casals-Ruiz Oxford
Yu-Yen Chien University of Southampton
Ian Chiswell Queen Mary, London
Sean Cleary CUNY
Ged Corob Cook Royal Holloway
Michael Davis Ohio State
Matthew Day University of Arkansas
Dieter Degrijse KU Leuven, Kortrijk
Dennis Dreesen Southampton
Andrew Duncan Newcastle
Martin Dunwoody Southampton
Jan Dymara Wroclaw
Ioannis Emmanouil University of Athens
Daniel Farley Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
Michal Ferov Southampton
Ariadna Fossas Tenas EPFL Lausanne
With affiliations at time of the Symposium.

vi
 vii

Giovanni Gandini Bonn

L
 ukasz Garncarek Wroclaw
Alejandra Garrido Oxford
Ross Geoghegan Binghamton
Anne Giralt Jussieu, Paris
Tadeusz Januszkiewicz Inst. Math., Polish Academy of Sciences
Aditi Kar Oxford
Martin Kassabov Cornell
Ilya Kazachkov Oxford
Dessislava Kochloukova UNICAMP
Peter Kropholler Southampton
Robert Kropholler Oxford
Benno Kuckuck Oxford
Ian Leary Southampton
Yash Lodha Cornell
Eric López Platón UPC
John Mackay Oxford
Conchita Martı́nez-Pérez Zaragosa
Armando Martino Southampton
Francesco Matucci Paris-Sud 11
Jon McCammond UC Santa Barbara
Sebastian Meinert FU Berlin
Ashot Minasyan Southampton
Justin Moore Cornell
Volodymyr Nekrashevych Texas A&M
Brita Nucinkis Royal Holloway, London
Nansen Petrosyan KU Leuven
Steve Pride Glasgow
Piotr Przytycki Warsaw
Sarah Rees Newcastle
Holger Reich FU Berlin
Claas Röver NUI Galway
Colva Roney-Dougal St Andrews
Mark Sapir Vanderbilt
Dirk Schuetz Durham
Marco Schwandt Bielefeld
Wolfgang Steimle Bonn
Melanie Stein Trinity
Simon St.John-Green Southampton
Zoran S̆unić Texas A&M
Jacek S̆wia̧tkowski Wroclaw
Olympia Talelli Athens
Robert Tang University of Warwick
Mark Ullmann FU Berlin
viii

Marco Varisco University of Albany, SUNY

Alina Vdovina Newcastle
Karen Vogtmann Cornell
Kun Wang Ohio State University
Christian Wegner Bonn
John Wilson Oxford
Henry Wilton UC London
Stefan Witzel Muenster
Daniel Woodhouse McGill University
Xiaolei Wu SUNY Binghamton
Pavel Zalesskii Brasilia
 Preface

This proceedings volume results from the fourth London Mathematical Soci-
ety Durham Symposium of an influential series that belongs to the mathemat-
ical territory that we now see as part of Geometric Group Theory. Notably it
was also the 100th in the entire series of LMS Durham Symposia. The first of
these four meetings was held in 1976 organised by Scott and Wall, the second
in 1994 organised by Kropholler and Stöhr (with Niblo as an additional edi-
tor for the proceedings volume), and the third in 2003 organised by Bridson,
Kropholler and Leary. Proceedings volumes for these three meetings appeared
in the London Mathematical Society Lecture Notes series as volumes 36, 252
and 358, and we are pleased to be able to continue this tradition.
This fourth meeting drew together some 80 mathematicians from around
the world. It shared with the earlier meetings the high standards and signifi-
cance of its main lecture series. These lecture series were delivered by Kai-Uwe
Bux, Desi Kochloukova, Jon McCammond, Justin Moore, Piotr Przytycki,
and Holger Reich. There was also room in the schedule for individual invited
lectures from Azer Akhmedov, Collin Bleak, Brian Bowditch, Martin Brid-
son, Michael Davis, Ioannis Emmanouil, Dan Farley, Ross Geoghegan, Martin
Kassabov, Conchita Martı́nez-Pérez, Volodymyr Nekrashevych, Nansen Pet-
rosyan, Colva Roney-Dougal, Mark Sapir, Karen Vogtmann, Christian Weg-
ner, John Wilson, Henry Wilton, and Stefan Witzel.
The titles of the four proceedings volumes that have flowed from these
symposia have evolved in a way that mirrors the evolution of the subject:
over a period of almost four decades, the role of geometry in group theory
has grown hugely. This change was evident at the symposium and can also
be seen in the present volume.
We thank all the authors who have contributed to this volume. We thank
the London Mathematical Society and the Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council for their support both in terms of advice and financially. The
organisational burden that has in the past fallen on the scientific committee
associated with an LMS Durham Symposium has now largely been replaced
by the very supportive and tireless work of the administrative staff in the
Mathematics Department of Durham University and we gratefully acknowl-
edge this contribution, which has gone a long way to making these symposia
run smoothly and ensuring that the focus is on the important science at the
heart of our work.

ix
x

The warm and friendly atmosphere of the meeting itself led to many useful
interactions and a flow of ideas. We hope that the reader will find some of
this excitement is reflected in the present volume.

Peter Kropholler, University of Southampton

Ian Leary, University of Southampton
Conchita Martı́nez-Pérez, University of Zaragoza
Brita Nucinkis, Royal Holloway, University of London
 Obstructions for subgroups of Thompson’s
group V
José Burillo∗ Sean Cleary∗ Claas E. Röver∗

Abstract

Thompson’s group V has a rich variety of subgroups, containing all

finite groups, all finitely generated free groups and all finitely generated
abelian groups, the finitary permutation group of a countable set, as
well as many wreath products and other families of groups. Here, we
describe some obstructions for a given group to be a subgroup of V .

1 Introduction
Thompson constructed a finitely presented group now known as V as an early
example of a finitely presented infinite simple group. The group V contains
a remarkable variety of subgroups, such as the finitary infinite permutation
group S∞ , and hence all (countable locally) finite groups, finitely generated
free groups, finitely generated abelian groups, Houghton’s groups, copies of
Thompson’s groups F , T and V , and many of their generalizations, such as
the groups Gn,r constructed by Higman [9]. Moreover, the class of subgroups
of V is closed under direct products and restricted wreath products with finite
or infinite cyclic top group.
In this short survey, we summarize the development of properties of V
focusing on those which prohibit various groups from occurring as subgroups
of V .
Thompson’s group V has many descriptions. Here, we simply recall that
V is the group of right-continuous bijections from the unit interval [0, 1] to
itself, which map dyadic rational numbers to dyadic rational numbers, which
are differentiable except at finitely many dyadic rational numbers, and with
slopes, when defined, integer powers of 2. The elements of this group can
∗ The authors are grateful for the hospitality of Durham University during the Sym-

posium on Cohomological and Geometric Group Theory. The first author acknowledges
support from MEC grant MTM2011–25955. The second author acknowledges support from
the National Science Foundation and that this work was partially supported by a grant
from the Simons Foundation (#234548 to Sean Cleary).

1
2 J. Burillo, S. Cleary and C. E. Röver

be described by reduced tree pair diagrams of the type (S, T, π) where π is a

bijection between the leaves of the two finite rooted binary trees S and T .
Higman [9] gave a different description of V , which he denoted as G2,1 in
a family of groups generalizing V .

2 Obstructions
Higman [9] described several important properties of V which can serve as
obstructions to subgroups occurring in V .
Theorem 2.1 ([9]) An element of infinite order in V has only finitely many
roots.
This prevents all Baumslag-Solitar groups Bm,n = a, b | an b = bam  from
occurring as subgroups of V , if m properly divides n; see [13].
Theorem 2.2 ([9]) Torsion free abelian subgroups of V are free abelian, and
their centralizers have finite index in their normalizers in V.
This prevents GLn (Z) from occurring as a subgroup of V for n ≥ 2.
A group is torsion locally finite if every torsion subgroup is locally finite.
That is, if every finitely generated torsion subgroup is finite. Röver [12] showed
Theorem 2.3 ([12]) Thompson’s group V is torsion locally finite.
This rules out many branch groups from occurring as subgroups of V ,
including the Grigorchuk groups of intermediate growth [7] and the Gupta-
Sidki groups [8]. It also rules out Burnside groups.
Holt and Röver [10] showed that V has indexed co-word problem.
Theorem 2.4 ([10]) The set of words (over an arbitrary but fixed finite gen-
erating set) which do not represent the identity in V is an indexed language,
and hence can be recognized by a nested-stack automaton.
This property is not easy to verify, however. But it is inherited by finitely
generated subgroups (see [10]), and hence groups which do not have an in-
dexed co-word problem cannot occur as a subgroup of V .
Lehnert and Schweitzer [11] improved this result.
Theorem 2.5 ([11]) The set of words (over an arbitrary but fixed finite gen-
erating set) which do not represent the identity in V is a context-free language,
and hence can be recognized by a pushdown automaton.
Again, this property is inherited by finitely generated subgroups, but the
condition is still not easy to verify.
More recently, Bleak and Salaza-Dı́az [4] and subsequently Corwin [6],
using similar techniques showed
Obstructions for subgroups of Thompson’s group V 3

Theorem 2.6 ([4, 6]) Neither the free product Z ∗ Z2 nor the standard re-
stricted wreath product Z  Z2 with Z2 as top group are subgroups of V .

One theorem of Higman [9] together with a metric estimate of Birget [1]
gives another obstruction.

Theorem 2.7 ([9]) For any element v of infinite order in V , there is a power
v n such that for the reduced tree pair diagram (S, T, π) for v n , there is a leaf
i in the source tree S which is paired with a leaf j in the target tree T so that
j is a child of of i.

Theorem 2.8 ([1]) For any finite generating set of V , There are constants
C and C  such that word length |v| of an element of V with respect to that
generating set satisfies Cn ≤ |v| ≤ C  n log n where n is the size of the reduced
tree pair diagram representing v.

Since the powers of v n will have length thus growing linearly, these two
theorems give as a consequence the following.

Theorem 2.9 Cyclic subgroups of V are undistorted.

We note that this argument applies as well to generalizations of V where

there is a linear lower bound on word length in terms of the number of carets,
such as braided versions of V [5].
This last theorem has an obvious corollary.

Corollary 2.10 If a group embeds in V , its cyclic subgroups must be undis-

torted.

The reason for this is that in a chain of subgroups G ⊃ H ⊃ K the

distortion of K in H cannot be larger than the distortion of K in G.
We note that Bleak, Bowman, Gordon, Graham, Hughes, Matucci and J.
Sapir [3] used Brin’s methods of revealing pairs for elements of V to show
that cyclic subgroups of V are undistorted.
This result excludes all Baumslag-Solitar groups with |n| = |m|, as these
have distorted cyclic subgroups. It also rules out nilpotent groups which
are not virtually abelian. An alternative argument excluding the Baumslag-
Solitar groups is due to Bleak, Matucci and Neunhöffer [2].

References
[1] Jean-Camille Birget. The groups of Richard Thompson and complexity.
Internat. J. Algebra Comput., 14(5-6):569–626, 2004. International Con-
ference on Semigroups and Groups in honor of the 65th birthday of Prof.
John Rhodes.
4 J. Burillo, S. Cleary and C. E. Röver

[2] C. Bleak, F. Matucci, and M. Neunhöffer. Embeddings into Thompson’s

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the R. Thompson group Vn . Groups Geom. Dyn., 7(4):821–865, 2013.
[4] Collin Bleak and Olga Salazar-Dı́az. Free products in R. Thompson’s
group V . Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., 365(11):5967–5997, 2013.
[5] José Burillo and Sean Cleary. Metric properties of braided Thompson’s
groups. Indiana Univ. Math. J., 58(2):605–615, 2009.
[6] Nathan Corwin. Embedding and non embedding results for R. Thompsons
group V and related groups. PhD thesis, University of Nebraska – Lincoln,
2013.

[7] R. I. Grigorčuk. On Burnside’s problem on periodic groups. Funktsional.

Anal. i Prilozhen., 14(1):53–54, 1980.

[8] Narain Gupta and Saı̈d Sidki. On the Burnside problem for periodic
groups. Math. Z., 182(3):385–388, 1983.
[9] Graham Higman. Finitely presented infinite simple groups. Department
of Pure Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, I.A.S. Australian Na-
tional University, Canberra, 1974. Notes on Pure Mathematics, No. 8
(1974).

[10] Derek F. Holt and Claas E. Röver. Groups with indexed co-word problem.
Internat. J. Algebra Comput., 16(5):985–1014, 2006.
[11] J. Lehnert and P. Schweitzer. The co-word problem for the Higman-
Thompson group is context-free. Bull. Lond. Math. Soc., 39(2):235–241,
2007.
[12] Claas E. Röver. Constructing finitely presented simple groups that con-
tain Grigorchuk groups. J. Algebra, 220(1):284–313, 1999.

[13] Claas E. Röver. Subgroups of finitely presented simple groups. PhD thesis,
University of Oxford, 1999.
 Groups of homological dimension one
Ioannis Emmanouil∗

Abstract
We report on recent work concerning groups of homological dimen-
sion one and detail some methods that may be used in order to deter-
mine whether these groups are locally free.

0 Introduction
Stallings has established in [20] a characterization of finitely generated free
groups, as those groups whose cohomological dimension is one. It is very
easy to show that a free group has cohomological dimension one. Indeed, if
G is a free group then the augmentation ideal IG is a free ZG-module; in
fact, if G is freely generated by a subset S, then IG is a free ZG-module
on the set {s − 1 : s ∈ S}. The essence of Stallings’ theorem is that the
converse implication is also true, namely that any finitely generated group of
cohomological dimension one is free. Bieri asked in [2] whether a (stronger)
homological version of the latter result holds:
Is any finitely generated group of homological dimension one free?
Shortly after the publication of the proof of Stallings’ theorem, Swan showed
that the finite generation hypothesis is redundant therein, by proving that a
(not necessarily finitely generated) group G is free if and only if cd G = 1
(cf. [21]). In that direction, we note that Bieri’s question may be equivalently
formulated as follows:
Is any group of homological dimension one locally free?
Some interesting results concerning that problem have been obtained in [5]
and [11], by embedding the integral group ring ZG of the group G into the
associated von Neumann algebra N G and the algebra UG of unbounded op-
erators which are affiliated to N G.
We note that a group G is known to be finitely generated if and only if
the augmentation ideal IG is a finitely generated ZG-module, whereas G has
∗ Research supported by a GSRT/Greece excellence grant, cofunded by the ESF/EU and

National Resources.

5
6 I. Emmanouil

homological dimension one if and only if IG is a flat ZG-module. In view of the

above mentioned result of Stallings and Swan, the freeness of G is equivalent
to the projectivity of IG as a ZG-module. Therefore, Bieri’s question turns
out to be equivalent to the following one:
If the augmentation ideal IG is a finitely generated flat ZG-module,
then is it true that IG is a projective ZG-module?
If G is any countable group, then the augmentation ideal IG is countably
presented as a ZG-module. It follows from a result of Lazard [12] that, in this
case, the flatness of IG implies that its projective dimension is ≤ 1 (and hence
that cd G ≤ 2). The point is to show that if we strengthen the assumption on
the group G and assume that it is finitely generated (and not just countable),
then the flatness of IG implies its projectivity. In this direction, we note that
if G is the additive group of rational numbers, then the ZG-module IG is flat
but not projective (i.e. hd G = 1 but cd G = 2); even though this countable
group has homological dimension one, it isn’t free.
In the present note, we shall follow [6] and elaborate on two methods that
may be used in order to study this problem.

1 Projectivity of finitely generated flat mod-

ules
Let G be a group and consider the augmentation ideal IG . As mentioned in the
Introduction, we wish to prove that the ZG-module IG is projective, provided
that we know it to be finitely generated and flat. We are only interested in
the very particular ZG-module IG , but it may be the case that our group G
is such that any finitely generated flat ZG-module is projective. Even though
it seems that we make the problem unnecessarily harder1 , we introduce the
following class of groups:
Definition 1.1. Let S be the class consisting of those groups G, which are
such that any finitely generated flat ZG-module is projective.
We shall begin by listing a couple of elementary properties of this class:

(i) S contains all finite groups.

Proof. If G is a finite group, then the group ring ZG is (left) Noetherian and
hence any finitely generated ZG-module is finitely presented. In particular,
any finitely generated flat ZG-module is (finitely presented and flat and hence)
projective. 2

(ii) S is subgroup-closed.
1 See Remark 1.8(ii) below.
Groups of homological dimension one 7

Proof. Let H be a subgroup of a group G ∈ S. In order to show that H ∈ S,

let M be a finitely generated flat ZH-module. Then, indG H M is a finitely
generated flat ZG-module and hence, in view of the hypothesis made on G, it
is ZG-projective. Therefore, the ZH-module resG G
H indH M is projective. Since
M is a direct summand of resH indH M , it follows that M is a projective ZH-
G G

module as well. 2

(iii) Any S-group of homological dimension one is locally free.

Proof. Let H be a finitely generated subgroup of an S-group G with hd G = 1.
Then H has homological dimension one and hence the augmentation ideal IH
is a finitely generated flat ZH-module. Since the class S is subgroup-closed
(cf. (ii) above), the group H is contained in S and hence the ZH-module IH
is projective. Invoking Stallings’ theorem, we conclude that H is a free group,
as needed. 2

Remark 1.2. The class of those rings R over which any finitely generated
flat left module is projective has been studied in [8] and [18]. It is shown
therein that this property is equivalent to the ascending chain condition on
certain sequences of principal left ideals in matrix rings over R. In particular,
it turns out that a group G is an S-group if and only if for any n ≥ 1 and
any sequence of n × n matrices (Ai )i ∈ Mn (ZG) with Ai Ai+1 = Ai for all i,
the ascending sequence of principal left ideals

Mn (ZG)A0 ⊆ Mn (ZG)A1 ⊆ . . . ⊆ Mn (ZG)At ⊆ · · ·

of the matrix ring Mn (ZG) is eventually constant.

The embedding of the integral group ring ZG of a group G into the associated
von Neumann algebra N G enables one to define the von Neumann dimension
dimN G (N G ⊗ZG P ) ∈ R for any finitely generated projective ZG-module P .
The reader may consult Lück’s book [14] for the details of the definition and
several useful properties of this dimension theory.
For any group G we let ΛG be the additive subgroup of Q, which is gen-
erated by the inverses of the orders of the finite subgroups of G. The group
G is said to satisfy Atiyah’s conjecture if dimN G (N G ⊗ZG P ) ∈ ΛG for any
finitely generated projective ZG-module P . Lück’s book contains a thorough
discussion of this conjecture and presents several classes of groups for which
the conjecture is known to be true.

Definition 1.3. Let Af in be the class consisting of those groups that satisfy
Atiyah’s conjecture and have a finite upper bound on the orders of their finite
subgroups.

The relevance of Atiyah’s conjecture in the study of groups of homological

dimension one was noticed by Kropholler, Linnell and Lück in [11]: In order to
8 I. Emmanouil

describe the link between the two themes, let us consider a finitely generated
group G and fix a presentation of it as the quotient of a finitely generated
free group Γ by a normal subgroup N . Then, as shown by Magnus in [16],
the associated relation module P = N/[N, N ] fits into a short exact sequence
of ZG-modules
0 −→ P −→ F −→ IG −→ 0, (1)
where F is a finitely generated free ZG-module (of rank equal to the rank of
the free group Γ); see also [3, Chapter II, Proposition 5.4]. If the group G has
homological dimension one, then the augmentation ideal IG is flat as a ZG-
module. Invoking [12, Théorème I.3.2], we conclude that IG has projective
dimension ≤ 1 and hence P is a projective ZG-module. Then, since the
(finitely generated flat) ZG-module IG is projective if and only if it is finitely
presented, in order to prove the conjectured freeness of the group G, we are
reduced to showing that the relation module P is finitely generated.
It is well known that if we are dealing with vector spaces over a field, then
any subspace of a finitely generated vector space V is also finitely generated,
i.e. there is no strictly increasing sequence of subspaces of V . One may prove
this property using the fact that the dimension of any such a subspace is
bounded by the dimension of V and hence the dimensions of these subspaces
may assume only finitely many values. In the same way, one may attempt to
prove that the ZG-module P in the exact sequence (1) above is finitely gener-
ated, using the formal properties of the von Neumann dimension (namely, its
monotonicity and continuity). There is a problem though with this approach:
The von Neumann dimension is a real number (not necessarily an integer)
and a bounded set of real numbers need not be discrete. Atiyah’s conjecture
for groups with a finite upper bound on the orders of their finite subgroups
guarantees that the set of the von Neumann dimensions that are involved is
indeed discrete, making the classical linear algebra argument outlined above
work.
In fact, we may state the following result, which is essentially due to
Kropholler, Linnell and Lück (cf. [11]).

Theorem 1.4. The class Af in is a subclass of S.

Proof. Let G be a group contained in Af in . In order to show that G is an

S-group, it suffices, in view of [8, Proposition 3.5], to show that any finitely
generated and countably presented flat ZG-module is projective. To that end,
let M be a finitely generated and countably presented flat ZG-module. Being
countably presented and flat, the module M has projective dimension ≤ 1
(cf. [12, Théorème I.3.2]) and hence the arguments used in the proof of [11,
Lemma 4, Lemma 5 and Theorem 2] show that M is finitely presented and
therefore projective. 2
∞
For any ideal I of a ring R we define the ideal I ω = n=1 I n . We also consider
Groups of homological dimension one 9

m 1
the ideals ω
, m ≥ 1, which are defined inductively by letting I ω = I ω and
 Im−1 
ωm ω ω
I = I for all m > 1. We say that the ideal I is residually nilpotent
ω
if I = 0.

Definition 1.5. For all m ≥ 1 let Xm be the class consisting of thosegroups G

ωm ∞
whose augmentation ideal IG is such that IG = 0. We also let X = m=1 Xm .

The class X1 , which contains those groups whose augmentation ideal is

residually nilpotent, has been studied extensively (cf. [17]). As shown by
Lichtman in [13], X1 contains as a subclass the class

Y1 = {residually torsion-free nilpotent groups}.

In particular, X1 contains all free groups (cf. [15, §I.10]) and all torsion-free
abelian groups. As shown in [6, Proposition 5.2], the class X is closed under
subgroups and extensions.2 It follows that X contains as a subclass the class

Y = {iterated extensions of residually torsion-free nilpotent groups}.

The relevance of class X in the study of S-groups (and therefore in the

study of groups of homological dimension one) stems from the following lifting
result, which is itself proved in [6, Proposition 5.3(ii)].

Theorem 1.6. Let G be a group and N ⊆ G a normal subgroup. If N ∈ X

and G/N ∈ S, then G ∈ S. 2

In particular, the trivial group being an S-group, it follows that X ⊆ S.

Corollary 1.7. Let G be a group having a normal subgroup N ⊆ G, such

that:

1. N is an iterated extension of residually torsion-free nilpotent groups and

2. G/N satisfies Atiyah’s conjecture and has a finite upper bound on the
orders of its finite subgroups.

Then, G ∈ S. In particular, if G has homological dimension one, then G is

locally free.

Proof. Since N ∈ Y ⊆ X and G/N ∈ Af in ⊆ S (cf. Theorem 1.4), the result

is an immediate consequence of Theorem 1.6. 2

Remarks 1.8. (i) (cf. [6, Theorem 5.5]) If O is any class of groups, let
us denote by O♦ the class consisting of the finitely generated O-groups of
homological dimension one. For example, if we denote by F the class of free
2 In fact, the class X
m is subgroup-closed for all m, whereas if N is a normal subgroup
of a group G, such that N ∈ Xm and G/N ∈ Xm , then G ∈ Xm+m .
10 I. Emmanouil

groups, then F♦ is the class consisting of the free groups of finite rank. With
this notation, the chains of inclusions

F ⊆ Y1 ⊆ X1 ⊆ X ⊆ S and F ⊆ Y1 ⊆ Y ⊆ X ⊆ S

induce equalities

F♦ = Y♦ ♦ ♦
1 = X1 = X = S
♦
and F♦ = Y♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
1 =Y =X =S .

Indeed, as we have noted above, a finitely generated S-group of homological

dimension one is necessarily free.
(ii) Let G be a finitely generated group of homological dimension one, so that
the augmentation ideal IG is a finitely generated flat ZG-module. If that
particular module (namely IG ) is projective, then all finitely generated flat
ZG-modules are projective, i.e. G is an S-group. Indeed, the projectivity of
IG implies, in view of Stallings’ theorem, that the group G is free and hence
the inclusion F ⊆ S (cf. (i) above) shows that G ∈ S.
(iii) It is known that Y1 -groups admit a left order. If G is a left orderable
group of homological dimension one, then, as shown by Dicks and Linnell in
[5, Corollary 6.12], any 2-generated subgroup of G is free. It follows from
(i) above that the same result holds for any finitely generated subgroup of a
Y1 -group of homological dimension one.

2 The cohomology group H 2 (G, ZG)

The relation between flatness and projectivity is a classical theme in homo-
logical algebra. There is a variety of conditions which, when imposed on a flat
module, imply its projectivity. In this direction, it is worth mentioning a re-
sult due to Raynaud and Gruson. Even though they were mainly interested in
modules over commutative rings (and, more generally, quasi-coherent sheaves
on schemes), they established in [19] a criterion for a countably presented flat
left module K over a not necessarily commutative ring R to be projective.
As shown by Lazard [12, §I.3], such a module K can be expressed as the
direct limit of a direct system (Kn )n of finitely generated free left R-modules.
With this notation, Raynaud and Gruson proved that K is projective if and
only if the inverse system of abelian groups (HomR (Kn , R))n satisfies the
Mittag-Leffler condition. The corresponding notion of Mittag-Leffler modules
has been studied thoroughly and systematically in [1]. On the other hand,
Gray has obtained in [9] a characterization of the Mittag-Leffler condition for
inverse systems of countable abelian groups in terms of the vanishing of lim1 ,
←−
the first derived functor of the inverse limit functor. Using this circle of ideas
and the classical expression of the Ext-groups of K in terms of the Ext-groups
of the Kn ’s, Jensen has obtained in [10] a simple projectivity test for a flat
module, that we shall describe below (see also [6, Theorem 1.3]).
Groups of homological dimension one 11

To that end, assume that R is a countable ring and consider a countable

left R-module K. Then, Jensen’s criterion asserts that K is projective if and
only if K is flat and Ext1R (K, R) = 0. A stronger version of that result was
obtained in [7, Theorem 2.22], where it is shown that
K is projective ⇐⇒ pdR K ≤ 1 and Ext1R (K, R) = 0.
Let us now consider a non-zero countable left R-module M of finite projective
dimension. Then, the functors ExtiR (M, ) vanish identically for i  0. In
particular, ExtiR (M, R) = 0 for i  0. Applying the result above to a suitable
kernel in a countably generated free resolution of M (namely, to the (n − 1)th
kernel, where n = pdR M ), we obtain the equality
pdR M = max{i ≥ 0 : ExtiR (M, R) = 0}. (2)
The latter equality is of some interest, as it shows that any countable module
of finite projective dimension over a countable ring demonstrates a cohomo-
logical behavior reminiscent of the F P -condition. Indeed, if R is any ring
and M any non-zero left R-module with pdR M = n < ∞, then the functor
ExtnR (M, ) does not vanish identically, whereas ExtiR (M, ) = 0 for all i > n.
In fact, if P∗ −→ M −→ 0 is a projective resolution of M of length n, then
it is easily seen that ExtnR (M, Pn ) = 0. Since Pn is a direct summand of a
free left R-module F , it follows that we also have ExtnR (M, F ) = 0. The free
module F is, in general, of infinite rank. In order to obtain some information
on the minimal size of such an F , we note that:
(i) If κ is an infinite cardinal, such that any left ideal of R is generated by
a set of cardinality κ and M is κ-generated, then one  may choose Pn to be
κ-generated. Therefore, it follows that ExtnR M, R(κ) = 0.
(ii) In particular, if the ring R is left ℵ0 -Noetherian (i.e. if any left
 ideal of R
is countably generated) and M is countably generated, then ExtnR M, R(N) =
0.
(iii) If R is any ring and M is an F P -module, then Pn (and hence the free
module F ) may be chosen to be finitely generated; therefore, in this case, we
have ExtnR (M, R) = 0.
The essence of equality (2) is that, if R is a countable ring and M a countable
left R-module of projective dimension n, then we may choose the free module
F for which ExtnR (M, F ) = 0 to be the left regularmodule R. In other
words, the non-triviality of the group ExtnR M, R(N) (which itself results
from the fact that the pair (R, M ) satisfies the hypotheses in (ii) above) may
be strengthened to the conclusion that ExtnR (M, R) = 0 (which is generically
a consequence of the finiteness condition in (iii) above).
We now consider the special case where R = ZG is the integral group ring
of a countable group G and M = Z (with the trivial action of G). Assuming
that G has finite cohomological dimension, we obtain from (2) the equality
cd G = max{i ≥ 0 : H i (G, ZG) = 0}.
12 I. Emmanouil

If the countable group G has homological dimension one, then we have cd G ≤

2 and hence it follows that, in this case,

cd G = 1 ⇐⇒ H 2 (G, ZG) = 0.

The latter equivalence may be strengthened, as stated in the next result,

which is proved in [6, Theorem 3.1].
Theorem 2.1. Let G be a countable group of homological dimension one.
Then, the following conditions are equivalent:
(i) cd G = 1 (i.e. G is free),
(ii) H 2 (G, ZG) = 0,
(iii) H 2 (G, ZG) is a countable group. 2
Corollary 2.2. (cf. [6, Proposition 3.2]) Let G be a finitely generated group
of homological dimension one, which contains a non-trivial finitely generated
free group as a normal subgroup. Then, G is a free group.
Proof (sketch). If 1 = N ⊆ G is a normal subgroup, which is finitely generated
and free, then one may use the associated Lyndon-Hochschild-Serre spectral
sequence in order to obtain an isomorphism of abelian groups H 2 (G, ZG) 
H 1 (G/N, H 1 (N, ZG)). Since both groups N and G/N are finitely generated
and ZG is countable, the abelian group H 1 (G/N, H 1 (N, ZG)) turns out to be
countable as well. The freeness of G then follows invoking Theorem 2.1. 2

As an application of the result above, we can show that any group of homolog-
ical dimension one must necessarily share certain properties with locally free
groups. In order to state explicitly these properties, let us consider a group G
of homological dimension one. Then, as shown in [6, §3], the following hold:
(i) For any non-trivial finitely generated and free subgroup H ⊆ G the nor-
malizer NG (H) of H is locally free and the quotient group NG (H)/H is locally
finite.
(ii) If H ⊆ G is an infinite cyclic subgroup, then the normalizer NG (H)
coincides with the centralizer CG (H) and is locally infinite cyclic.
(iii) If G is non-abelian, then the center of G is trivial.3

References
[1] Angeleri-Hügel, L., Herbera, D.: Mittag-Leffler conditions on modules.
Ind. Univ. Math. J. 57, 2459-2517 (2008)
[2] Bieri, R.: Homological dimension of discrete groups. Queen Mary College
Mathematics Notes. Queen Mary College, London 1976
3 This result may be alternatively proved using the structure of groups of cohomological

dimension ≤ 2; for such a proof, the reader may consult Cornick’s unpublished notes [4].
Groups of homological dimension one 13

[3] Brown, K.S.: Cohomology of Groups. (Grad. Texts Math. 87) Berlin
Heidelberg New York: Springer 1982

[4] Cornick, J.: On groups of homological dimension one. (unpublished

manuscript)

[5] Dicks, W., Linnell, P.: L2 -Betti numbers of one-relator groups. Math.
Ann. 337, 855-874 (2007)

[6] Emmanouil, I., Talelli, O.: On the equality between homological and
cohomological dimension of groups. J. reine angew. Math. 664, 55-70
(2012)

[7] Emmanouil, I., Talelli, O.: On the flat length of injective modules. J.
London Math. Soc. 84, 408-432 (2011)

[8] Facchini, A., Herbera, D., Sakhajev, I.: Finitely generated flat modules
and a characterization of semiperfect rings. Comm. Algebra 31, 4195-
4214 (2003)

[9] Gray, B.: Spaces of the same n-type, for all n. Topology 5, 241-243 (1966)

[10] Jensen, C.U.: Variations on Whitehead’s problem and the structure of

Ext. Models, Modules and Abelian Groups, 407-414. (Edited by Gobel,
R. and Goldsmith, B.) Walter de Gruyter: Berlin, New York 2008

[11] Kropholler, P., Linnell, P., Lück, W.: Groups of small homological di-
mension and the Atiyah conjecture. Geometry and Cohomology in Group
Theory, Durham, July 2003, editors: Bridson, M., Kropholler, P.H. and
Leary, I.J., LMS Lecture Notes Series 358, 271-277, Cambridge Univer-
sity Press 2009

[12] Lazard, D.: Autour de la platitude. Bull. Soc. Math. France 97, 81-128
(1969)

[13] Lichtman, A.I.: The residual nilpotency of the augmentation ideal and
the residual nilpotency of some classes of groups. Israel J. Math. 26,
276-293 (1977)

[14] Lück, W.: L2 -invariants: theory and applications to geometry and K-

theory. Springer 2002

[15] Lyndon, R.C., Schupp, P.E.: Combinatorial group theory. Ergebnisse der
Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete 89, Springer: Berlin, New York 1977

[16] Magnus, W.: On a theorem of Marshall Hall. Ann. Math. 40, 764-768
(1939)
14 I. Emmanouil

[17] Passi, I.B.S.: Group rings and their augmentation ideals. Lecture Notes
in Mathematics 715, Springer: Berlin 1979
[18] Puninski, G., Rothmaler, P.: When every finitely generated flat module
is projective. J. Algebra 277, 542-558 (2004)

[19] Raynaud, M., Gruson, L.: Critères de platitude et de projectivité. Invent.

Math. 13, 1-89 (1971)

[20] Stallings, J.R.: On torsion free groups with infinitely many ends. Ann.
Math. 88, 312-334 (1968)
[21] Swan, R.G.: Groups of cohomological dimension one. J. Algebra 12,
585–610 (1969)
 Braided diagram groups and local similarity
groups
Daniel S. Farley Bruce Hughes∗

Abstract
Hughes defined a class of groups that act as local similarities on
compact ultrametric spaces. Guba and Sapir had previously defined
braided diagram groups over semigroup presentations. The two classes
of groups share some common characteristics: both act properly by
isometries on CAT(0) cubical complexes, and certain groups in both
classes have type F∞ , for instance.
Here we clarify the relationship between these families of groups:
the braided diagram groups over tree-like semigroup presentations are
precisely the groups that act on compact ultrametric spaces via small
similarity structures. The proof can be considered a generalization of
the proof that Thompson’s group V is a braided diagram group over a
tree-like semigroup presentation.
We also prove that certain additional groups, such as the Houghton
groups Hn , and QAut(T2,c ), lie in both classes.

Contents
1 Introduction 15

2 Braided diagram groups 17

3 Groups defined by finite similarity structures 21

4 Braided diagram groups and groups determined by finite sim-

ilarity structures 24

1 Introduction
In [7], Hughes described a class of groups that act as homeomorphisms on
compact ultrametric spaces. Fix a compact ultrametric space X. The essence
∗ The second-named author was supported in part by NSF Grant DMS–0504176.

15
16 D. S. Farley and B. Hughes

of the idea was to associate to X a finite similarity structure, which is a

function that associates to each ordered pair of balls B1 , B2 ⊆ X a finite
set SimX (B1 , B2 ) of surjective similarities from B1 to B2 . (A similarity is a
map that stretches or contracts distances by a fixed constant.) The finite sets
SimX (B1 , B2 ) are assumed to have certain desirable closure properties (such
as closure under composition). A homeomorphism h : X → X is said to be
locally determined by SimX if each x ∈ X has a ball neighborhood B with the
property that h(B) is a ball and the restriction of h to B agrees with one of the
local similarities σ ∈ SimX (B, h(B)). The collection of all homeomorphisms
that are locally determined by SimX forms a group under composition. We
will call such a group an FSS group (finite similarity structure group) for short.
Hughes [7] proved that each FSS group has the Haagerup property, and even
acts properly on a CAT(0) cubical complex. In [5], the authors described
a class of FSS groups that have type F∞ . That class includes Thompson’s
group V , and the main theorem of [5] is best understood as a generalization
of [2], where Brown originally showed that V has type F∞ .
In earlier work, Guba and Sapir [6] had sketched a theory of braided
diagram groups over semigroup presentations, and proved that Thompson’s
group V is a braided diagram group over the semigroup presentation x |
x = x2 . Farley [4] showed that braided diagram groups over semigroup
presentations act properly on CAT(0) cubical complexes.
The class F of FSS groups and the class B of braided diagram groups
therefore have a common origin, as generalizations of Thompson’s group V .
Both classes also share other features in common (as noted above). It is
therefore natural to wonder to what extent the two classes are the same. The
main goal of this note is to prove Theorem 4.12, which says that the FSS
groups determined by small similarity structures (Definition 4.6) are precisely
the same as the braided diagram groups determined by tree-like semigroup
presentations (Definition 4.1). It is even possible that Theorem 4.12 describes
the precise extent of the overlap between F and B, but we do not know how
to prove this.
We give all relevant definitions, and our treatment is fairly self-contained
as a result. A precise definition of braided diagram groups is given in Section
2, the precise definition of FSS groups appears in Section 3, and the main
theorem is proved in Section 4. Along the way, we give additional examples
in the class F ∩ B, including the Houghton groups Hn and a certain group
QAut(T2,c ) of quasi-automorphisms of the infinite binary tree. (These are
Examples 4.3 and 4.4, respectively.)
This note has been adapted from the longer preprint [5]. The first part
of the latter preprint (including roughly the first six sections) will be pub-
lished elsewhere. The first author would like to thank the organizers of the
Durham Symposium (August 2013) for the opportunity to speak. Example
4.3 first appeared as part of the first author’s lecture. The idea of Example
4.4 occurred to the first author after listening to Collin Bleak’s lecture at the
Braided diagram groups 17

Symposium.

2 Braided diagram groups

In this section, we will recall the definition of braided diagram groups over
semigroup presentations. Note that the theory of braided diagram groups
was first sketched by Guba and Sapir [6]. A more extended introduction to
braided diagram groups appears in [4].
Definition 2.1. Let Σ be a set, called an alphabet. The free semigroup on
Σ, denoted Σ+ , is the collection of all positive non-empty strings formed from
Σ, i.e.,
Σ+ = {u1 u2 . . . un | n ∈ N, ui ∈ Σ for i ∈ {1, . . . , n}}.
The free monoid on Σ, denoted Σ∗ , is the union Σ+ ∪ {1}, where 1 denotes
the empty string. (Here we assume that 1 ∈ Σ to avoid ambiguity.) The
operations in Σ+ and Σ∗ are concatenation.
We write w1 ≡ w2 if w1 and w2 are equal as words in Σ∗ .
Definition 2.2. A semigroup presentation P = Σ | R consists of an alpha-
bet Σ and a set R ⊆ Σ+ × Σ+ . The elements of R are called relations.
Remark 2.3. A relation (w1 , w2 ) ∈ R can be viewed as an equality between
the words w1 and w2 . We use ordered pairs to describe these equalities because
we will occasionally want to make a distinction between the left and right sides
of a relation.
A semigroup presentation P determines a semigroup SP , just as a group
presentation determines a group. We will, however, make essentially no use
of this semigroup SP . Our interest is in braided diagrams over P (see below).
Definition 2.4. (Braided Semigroup Diagrams) A frame is a homeomorphic
copy of ∂([0, 1]2 ) = ({0, 1} × [0, 1]) ∪ ([0, 1] × {0, 1}). A frame has a top side,
(0, 1) × {1}, a bottom side, (0, 1) × {0}, and left and right sides, {0} × [0, 1]
and {1} × [0, 1], respectively. The top and bottom of a frame have obvious
left to right orderings.
A transistor is a homeomorphic copy of [0, 1]2 . A transistor has top,
bottom, left, and right sides, just as a frame does. The top and bottom of a
transistor also have obvious left to right orderings.
A wire is a homeomorphic copy of [0, 1]. Each wire has a bottom 0 and a
top 1.
Let P = Σ | R be a semigroup presentation. Let T (Δ) be a finite
(possibly empty) set of transistors. Let W(Δ) be a finite, nonempty set of
wires. We let F (Δ) = ∂([0, 1]2 ) be a frame. We let Δ : W(Δ) → Σ be an
arbitrary function, called the labelling function.
For each wire W ∈ W(Δ), we choose a point t(W ) on the bottom of a
transistor, or on the top of the frame, and a point b(W ) on the top of a
18 D. S. Farley and B. Hughes

transistor, or on the bottom of the frame. The points t(W ) and b(W ) are
called the top and bottom contacts of W , respectively.
We attach the top of each wire W to t(W ) and the bottom of W to b(W ).
The resulting topological space Δ is called a braided diagram over P if the
following additional conditions are satisfied:
1. If Wi , Wj ∈ W(Δ), t(Wi ) = t(Wj ) only if Wi = Wj , and b(Wi ) = b(Wj )
only if Wi = Wj . In other words, the disjoint union of all of the wires
maps injectively into the quotient.
2. We consider the top of some transistor T ∈ T (Δ). Reading from left to
right, we find contacts
b(Wi1 ), b(Wi2 ), . . . , b(Win ),
where n ≥ 0. The word t (T ) = (Wi1 )(Wi2 ) . . . (Win ) is called the
top label of T . Similarly, reading from left to right along the bottom of
T , we find contacts
t(Wj1 ), t(Wj2 ), . . . , t(Wjm ),
where m ≥ 0. The word b (T ) = (Wj1 )(Wj2 ) . . . (Wjm ) is called
the bottom label of T . We require that, for any T ∈ T (Δ), either
(t (T ), b (T )) ∈ R or (b (T ), t (T )) ∈ R. (We emphasize that it is
not sufficient for t (T ) to be equivalent to b (T ) modulo the relation
∼ determined by R. Note also that this condition implies that b (T )
and t (T ) are both non-empty, since P is a semigroup presentation. In
particular, each transistor has wires attached to its top and bottom
faces.)
3. We define a relation  on T (Δ) as follows. Write T1  T2 if there is
some wire W such that t(W ) ∈ T2 and b(W ) ∈ T1 . We require that the
transitive closure 
˙ of  be a strict partial order on T (Δ).

Definition 2.5. Let Δ be a braided diagram over P. Reading from left to

right across the top of the frame F (Δ), we find contacts
t(Wi1 ), t(Wi2 ), . . . , t(Win ),
for some n ≥ 1. The word (Wi1 )(Wi2 ) . . . (Win ) = t (Δ) is called the top
label of Δ. We can similarly define the bottom label of Δ, b (Δ). We say that
Δ is a braided (t (Δ), b (Δ))-diagram over P.
Remark 2.6. One should note that braided diagrams, despite the name, are
not truly braided. In fact, two braided diagrams are equivalent (see Definition
2.10) if there is a certain type of marked homeomorphism between them.
Equivalence therefore does not depend on any embedding into a larger space.
Braided diagram groups (as defined in Theorem 2.13) also seem to have little
in common with Artin’s braid groups.
Braided diagram groups 19

Example 2.7. Let P = a, b, c | ab = ba, ac = ca, bc = cb. Figure 1 shows an

example of a braided (aabc, acba)-diagram over the semigroup presentation
P. The frame is the box formed by the dashed line. The wires that appear to
cross in the figure do not really touch, and it is unnecessary to specify which
wire passes over the other one. See Remark 2.6.

a a b c

1
0
0
1
1
0
1
c
0
1

a c b a
Figure 1: A braided (aabc, acba)-diagram over the semigroup presentation
P = a, b, c | ac = ca, ab = ba, bc = cb.

Definition 2.8. (Concatenation of braided diagrams) Let Δ1 and Δ2 be

braided diagrams over P. We suppose that Δ1 is a (w1 , w2 )-diagram and Δ2
is a (w2 , w3 )-diagram. We can multiply Δ1 and Δ2 by stacking them. More
explicitly, we remove the bottom of the frame of Δ1 and the top of the frame
of Δ2 , and then glue together the wires in order from left to right. This gluing
is compatible with the labeling of the wires, since the bottom label of Δ1 is
the same as the top label of Δ2 . The result is a braided diagram Δ1 ◦ Δ2 ,
called the concatenation of Δ1 and Δ2 .

Definition 2.9. (Dipoles) Let Δ be a braided semigroup diagram over P.

We say that the transistors T1 , T2 ∈ T (Δ), T1  T2 , form a dipole if:

1. the bottom label of T1 is the same as the top label of T2 , and

2. there are wires Wi1 , Wi2 , . . . , Win (n ≥ 1) such that the bottom contacts
T2 , read from left to right, are precisely

t(Wi1 ), t(Wi2 ), . . . , t(Win )

and the top contacts of T1 , read from left to right, are precisely

b(Wi1 ), b(Wi2 ), . . . , b(Win ).

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 At last the long Arctic night came to an end. It was with emotions
of hope and gratitude and joy that the explorers welcomed the first
rays of the returning sun on the last day of February. For four months
they had lived in obscurity and gloom, with the exception of such
relief as the stars and the moon had occasionally afforded. On the
day of the sun’s return to the Polar World, it was known that it would
rise at about twelve o’clock, and everybody ascended the hills for the
purpose of hailing the glorious spectacle. The mists and fogs,
however, baffled their expectations; and though they felt its
influence, they did not see it for some days after it had mounted
above the horizon.
News was brought from the Alert by two officers and two men
towards the end of March. They had accomplished the journey with
the thermometer at 40° below zero, and had occupied six days in
making it. The officers were Lieutenant Rawson and Mr. Egerton,
who had started at first in company with Petersen, the interpreter, but
had been compelled to return with him, as already narrated, because
he was severely frost-bitten. Directly they returned to the Discovery,
preparations were made for sending out the sledge-parties. Two
officers and three men, with a dog-sledge, started across Robeson
Channel to Hall’s Rest, the winter quarters of the Polaris, to report on
the stores left by the American vessel, which the United States
Government had placed at the disposal of the British expedition.
They reappeared on the fifth day, with the information that they had
found biscuit, pemmican, preserved meat, molasses, and other
articles. They had lived in a wooden observatory that they found
erected there. Captain Hall’s grave was in excellent preservation;
and they set up a head-board, with an inscription on it, to mark its
situation.
Lieutenant Beaumont and Mr. Coppinger, the surgeon, each with
an eight-man sledge—or, rather, with seven men besides
themselves—started for the Alert, in quest of the other sledge which
had wintered with that vessel; their design being to cross Robeson
Channel, and explore the North Greenland coast. In this journey,
owing to the “hummocky” character of the ice, they spent twelve
days.
 Two days later, a third party, consisting of a twelve-man sledge
and an eight-man sledge, with two officers, proceeded to survey the
shores of Lady Franklin Sound. The captain accompanied them in
the eight-man sledge, and was absent about a week; but the twelve-
man sledge, which had gone merely to carry stores and provisions
for the other, did not return for a fortnight, the sledge having been
damaged, and one of the marines severely frost-bitten in the heel.
The other sledge, after an absence of about four weeks, returned in
safety,—having discovered that Lady Franklin Strait, as the
Americans call it, was a sound or fiord about sixty miles long. They
had fallen in with some musk-oxen, which were too wild to be got at;
and had seen three or four glaciers, and hills three thousand feet in
height.
About June the warm summer began to assert itself, and in the
rays of the sun their icehouses melted away, like the baseless fabric
of a vision. So the sledging-party last spoken of adventured across
the ice to Polaris Bay, taking with them a life-boat as a precaution
(for the ice might at any time have broken up), and a supply of
provisions for the use of the North Greenland expedition. This work
done, they returned to the ship, leaving behind them two officers and
three men, who pushed up Petermann Fiord for about eight miles,
until arrested by the impenetrable barrier of a huge glacier.
On returning from their explorations they found that Lieutenant
Newsome, with four men, of whom one had died of scurvy on the
way, had accidentally separated from the North Greenland party, and
reached Petermann Fiord on the 3rd of June. All were seriously ill of
scurvy, except Mr. Rawson and a marine. Under Dr. Coppinger’s skill
and care, however, they recovered. As soon as possible, the doctor,
with Mr. Newsome and the Eskimos, started in a dog-sledge to
gather some information about the other members of the North
Greenland party. In a day or two they fell in with them; and not too
soon, for all were thoroughly exhausted. They had abandoned
everything, and when the doctor arrived were without food. Four of
them, who were accommodated on the sledge, were broken down
with scurvy, and two others had been attacked slightly. What was to
be done in this critical position of affairs? At first it was thought
advisable to remain on the spot for a while, and see if the Eskimos
could shoot a seal. But a day’s experience showed that this plan
would not answer; and they then resolved to carry the two worst
invalids on the dog-sledge to Hall’s Rest. This was accomplished,
and the poor fellows seemed to grow better when nourished by seal-
soup and proper food; but on the following morning one of them sank
and died. The life of the other hung for some time in the balance.
The whole company were now invalided; and Hall’s Rest might fitly
have been termed Hall’s Hospital.
A few days—weary, melancholy days—having elapsed, an
officer, with a couple of men, was sent across to the ship to report
the serious condition of affairs. As it was the end of June, the ice had
broken up in many places, and the traject of the strait was not
accomplished without difficulty, and frequent immersions in the
water. No sooner did Captain Stephenson learn how the party were
situated, than he set out, with seven men, to carry a supply of
medicines, provisions, and various comforts. They had with them a
boat and a sledge on a four-wheeled car, and in this they crossed
the land to the margin of the sea, a distance of about six miles.
Sometimes the boat was called into requisition to carry themselves
and the sledge from floe to floe. With half of the men they returned in
a few days, leaving the rest in charge of Lieutenant Beaumont and
Dr. Coppinger, until they had made more progress towards recovery.
Early in August an officer arrived from the Alert, to report that she
had moved southward, and was only about ten miles distant; and
that Captain Nares, considering the main objects of the expedition
secured, had decided on returning to England. About the same time
returned the North Greenland party, their provisions having failed
them. A few days later, and, having made her way through the
broken ice, the Alert joined the Discovery in Discovery Bay. Mr.
Beaumont’s party next arrived; and both vessels prepared for the
homeward voyage. They left Discovery Bay, as we shall see, on the
28th of August.
 Let us now return to the Alert, which we left embedded in the ice
of the North Polar Ocean.
Her crew made shift to spend a tolerably merry winter, availing
themselves of the usual resources of Arctic explorers under similar
conditions. The day’s order was much as follows:—At 6.45 a.m. the
commander was called, and all hands were piped up on deck; and
the hammocks having been previously stowed away and the decks
cleansed, everybody sat down, with vigorous appetite, to breakfast.
The steerage and lower deck were afterwards cleared up, and soon
after 9 a.m. the men were told off for their respective daily duties. At
10 a.m. another general parade of the crew was summoned, and, as
a preventive against scurvy, the day’s dose of lime juice was
administered. Then the crew went to quarters; the usual careful
inspection took place; and the chaplain read prayers. At one o’clock
the deck was cleared, and “dinner smoked upon the board.” On days
when the darkness was not too intense the crew turned out to work
upon the ice, or took their turn at walking exercise and amusements.
They were thus occupied until supper, which was served at about
five o’clock; and followed by evening school, the duties of which
proved equally agreeable to the officers who taught and the men
who learned. Soon after nine the officers in charge inspected the
ship to see that all was quiet for the night. At ten out went the lights
of the chief petty officers, and at eleven those of the wardroom.
This daily routine was freely interrupted on festival occasions.
Guy Fawkes’ Day was celebrated as hilariously as by the men of the
Discovery; and it is a curious illustration of the strength of old English
traditions, that the merry-making customs of the Fifth of November
should be thus closely observed by both the ice-bound vessels. Due
honours were also paid to Father Christmas; nor was New-Year’s
Day forgotten. Dramatic talent existed among the men of the Alert in
sufficient force to provide a regular dramatic company. The “Royal
Arctic Theatre” was erected in Funnel Row, and entertainments
given weekly. The programmes of the “Thursday Pops,” as they were
commonly called, were thrown off at a printing-press established in
Trap Lane by Messrs. Giffard and Simmons; and from one of these
we gather that the Royal Arctic Theatre opened for the season
“under the distinguished patronage of Captain Nares, the members
of the Arctic Expedition, and all the nobility and gentry of the
neighbourhood,” on the 18th of November 1875. The orchestra
consisted of one eminent pianist, Signor Aldrichi (Lieutenant Aldrich);
and the scenic artist was Dr. Moss. The performances commenced
at 7.30; and “sledges” might be ordered at nine o’clock. They were
by no means wholly dramatic. The bill of fare included scientific and
historical lectures, readings and recitations, songs and instrumental
music, ranging from grave to gay, from lively to severe; and now and
then, to draw a bumper house, some such attraction as feats of
legerdemain by “the real Wizard of the North, on his way to the
Hyperborean Regions;” acrobatic feats by “the Bounding Brothers of
the Frigid Zone;” or the vocal performances of the “Pale-o’-Christy
Minstrels,” who “never sing in London.” The plays produced were an
original burlesque operetta, “The Vulgar Little Boy; or, Weeping Bill”
(founded on Barham’s popular “Misadventures at Margate”), written
expressly by the ship’s chaplain, the Rev. W. H. Pullen, author of the
well-known political squib, “Dame Europa’s School;” “Aladdin; or,
The Wonderful Scamp;” “Boots at the Swan;” and “The Area Belle.”
The last and grand night was March 2nd, 1876,—when Captain
Nares lectured on “The Palæocrystic Sea, and Sledging
Experiences;” and after a variety of songs and readings, the
company and audience sang a grand choral strain, “The
Palæocrystic Chorus,” which we borrow from the pages of the
Graphic:—
“Not very long ago,
On the six-foot floe
Of the Palæocrystic Sea,
Two ships did ride
’Mid the crushing of the tide,
The Alert and the Discovery.
“The sun never shone
Their gallant crews upon
For a hundred and forty-two days;
But no darkness and no hummocks
Their merry hearts could flummox,
So they set to work and acted plays.
“There was music and song
 There was music and song
To help the hours along,
Brought forth from the good ship’s store;
And each man did his best
To amuse and cheer the rest,
And ‘nobody can’t do more.’
“Here’s a health to Marco Polo;
May he reach his northern goal oh!
And advance the flag of England into realms unknown;
May the Challenger be there
All courses bold to dare,
And Victoria be victorious in the Frozen Zone.
“May our Poppie be in sight
With her colours streaming bright;
And the Bulldog tug on merrily from strand to strand;
And the Alexandra brave
See our banner proudly wave,
O’er the highest cliffs and summits of the northernmost land.
“Here’s a health to Hercules,
Whom the autumn blast did freeze,
And all our gallant fellows by the frost laid low.
Just wait a little longer,
Till they get a trifle stronger,
And they’ll never pull the worse for having lost a toe.
“Here’s a health with three times three
To the brave Discovery,
And our merry, merry guests so truly welcome here;
And a brimming bumper yet
To our gallant little pet,
The lively Clements Markham with its bold charioteer.
“Here’s a health to all true blue,
To the officers and crew,
Who man this expedition neat and handy oh!
And may they ever prove,
Both in Sledging and in Love,
That the tars of old Britannia are the dandy oh!”

In explanation of some passages in the foregoing spirited

effusion, we may state that the six sledges belonging to the Alert
were named respectively, Marco Polo, Victoria, Challenger, Poppie,
Bulldog, and Alexandra. “Hercules” appears to have been the
nickname of one of the strong men of the ship.

The Alert wintered so far north, that its officers and men failed to
meet with some of the usual accessories of a Polar expedition.
There were no Polar bears; no Eskimos; even auroral displays were
infrequent. On the other hand, the darkness is described as not
having been particularly dense. The reflection of the snow, and the
keen “light of stars,” considerably mitigated the “deep obscure;” and
once in every fourteen days the splendour of the moon illuminated
the weird outlines of the monotonous Arctic scenery.
Some sledging was done in the autumn, though spring is the
season when it can best be undertaken. The Alert was no sooner
made all snug in her winter quarters, than sledging-parties carried
provisions and boats along the shore both northward and westward,
ready for use by expeditions in the following spring; the depôt being
planted within a mile of the farthest northern position hitherto
attained by civilized man. After a terrible journey of twenty days’
duration, the travellers returned on the 14th of October, just two days
after the disappearance of the sun. The snow fell heavily, and, by
protecting the sloppy ice from the intense frost, rendered travelling
difficult. The men’s shoes got thoroughly wet; hence several were
frost-bitten, and one officer and two men, on their return, were
compelled to undergo amputation. Beneath the cliffs lay great dense,
deep snow-wreaths, and in many places a road had to be excavated
to the depth of six feet. The men sunk to their waists. The sledge
was often completely buried. It needed all Lieutenant Rawson’s
resolution and patience to bring back his little company in safety.
The main sledging-party, under Commander Markham, with
Lieutenants Parr and May, and twenty-five men, left the Alert on the
25th of September, for the purpose of establishing a depôt at Cape
Joseph Henry. They advanced three miles beyond Sir Edward
Parry’s northernmost point, and, from a mountain 2000 feet high,
sighted land towards the west-north-west, as far as lat. 83° 7’ N., but
saw none to the northward.
With the return of the sun on the 29th of February, Captain Nares
began his preparations for the spring sledging-expeditions,
organizing two main detachments: one, bound northward, under
Commander Markham and Lieutenant Parr, with fifteen men,
supported by Dr. Moss and Mr. White, with two seven-man sledges;
and another, bound westward, consisting of two seven-man sledges,
led by Lieutenants Aldrich and Giffard.
On the 12th of March, Lieutenant Rawson and Mr. Egerton, as
already narrated, started off to open up communication with the
Discovery, but were compelled to return by the illness of Petersen,
whom they nursed on the way with womanlike tenderness and
devotion. In the following week, accompanied by Simmons, of the
Alert, and Regan, of the Discovery, they resumed their adventurous
track across the hummocky ice, with the temperature 40° below
zero, enduring much, but pushing forward undauntedly. When their
comrades of the Discovery condoled with them on account of frost-
bitten cheeks, and noses, and fingers, it was with the frank, blithe
heroism of the true British seaman that Lieutenant Rawson replied,
—“Well, at least we feel that the cheers from Southsea beach have
been fairly earned.”
The sledging-expeditions began in earnest in the first week of
April, only a few men being left on board each ship. Captain
Stephenson, of the Discovery, paid a visit to the Alert, and also
crossed Hall’s Basin twice to Greenland. Captain Nares, with
Captain Feilden, was not less energetic; and for a considerable area
round the two ships all was activity and motion. When at Polaris Bay,
Captain Stephenson, in memory of the gallant and unfortunate Hall,
hoisted the American ensign, and erected a brass tablet above the
explorer’s lonely grave. It bears the following inscription:—
“Sacred to the memory of Captain C. F. Hall, of the U.S. ship
Polaris, who sacrificed his life in the advancement of science on
November 8, 1871. This tablet has been erected by the British Polar
Expedition of 1875, who, following in his footsteps, have profited by
his experience.”
It may be noted here, in illustration of the labour attendant on the
equipment of an Arctic sledge-party, and the despatch of provisions
for their sustenance, that, in order to support the expeditions on the
north coast of Greenland and in Petermann Fiord, “Robeson
Channel was crossed eleven times from the position of the Alert to a
depôt established north of Cape Brevoort, and Hall’s Basin eleven
times between Discovery Bay and Polaris Bay; making a total of
twenty-two sledge-parties crossing the straits, including the
transporting of two boats. The main depôt at Cape Joseph Henry, for
the support of the northern and western divisions, thirty-seven miles
from the Alert, was visited by sixteen different sledges.”
Our travellers did not fail to examine the various cairns erected
by the seamen of the Polaris. At one place a box chronometer was
found to be in excellent order, though it had undergone the test of
four Arctic winters. And some wheat, which the Polaris had brought
out in order to ascertain the effect upon it of exposure to extreme
cold, was successfully cultivated under a glass shade by Dr. Ninnis
—almost as interesting an experiment in its way as the sowing and
successful harvesting of Mummy wheat, the grains found in ancient
Egyptian sepulchres.
The British expedition had advanced so far north that it was
beyond the life-limit of bears, birds, and even seals; and the
sledging-parties, unable therefore to obtain any fresh game, were
severely attacked by scurvy. This fell disease invariably broke out
when its victims were farthest from any assistance. The journeys
back to the ships were consequently undertaken, as we have
already pointed out, by men whose strength decreased daily; and
the burden became all the greater as man after man was smitten
down, and, to save his life, placed upon the sledge. Great was the
alarm on board the Alert, when, towards the close of the 8th of June,
Lieutenant Parr suddenly presented himself. He was alone. Where
were his comrades? What calamity had befallen them? He soon
explained that he had undertaken a journey of thirty-five miles, toiling
for twenty-two hours through mist and drift and snow, and guided
only by the fresh track of a stray wolf, to convey the news of the
prostrated condition of the members of the northern expedition.
Preparations were immediately made for hastening to their
assistance. With the help of the officers, who all volunteered to drag
the sledges, Captain Nares was able by midnight to start with two
strong relief-parties—Messrs. Egerton, Conybeare, Wootton, and
White, the officers who could best be spared from the ship, taking
their places at the drag-ropes; and Lieutenant May and Dr. Moss
pushing forward with a supply of medicines in the dog-sledge.
Such was the alacrity and energy of the two latter, that they
contrived to reach Commander Markham’s encampment within fifty
hours of the departure of Lieutenant Parr; though, unfortunately, not
in time to save the life of one of the marines, who but a few hours
before had expired and been buried in the floe. On the remainder of
the stricken company, their arrival, however, had a most beneficial
influence; and when, early the next day, Captain Nares came up to
their relief, their courage and resolution, which had never deserted
them, were quickened to the utmost, and even the invalids threw off
that dread depression an attack of scurvy invariably produces. On
the morning of the 14th all were once more safe on board the ship,
and offering up their heartfelt thanksgiving to God.
Captain Nares furnishes some particulars which illustrate very
vividly the terrible experiences of the adventurous sledge-party, and
also the ravages which scurvy never fails to commit. He says that of
the seventeen officers and men who originally left the Alert, only five
—namely, three officers and two men—were able to drag the
sledges alongside. Three others—heroes as true as any of those
whom Homer has made famous!—manfully kept on their feet to the
last, enduring the extreme of pain and fatigue rather than, by riding
on the sledges, increase the burden their weakened companions
had to drag. They were just able to crawl on board ship without
assistance. The remaining eight had struggled gallantly, but the
disease had proved too much for them, and they were carried on the
sledges. Out of the whole number, only two officers escaped the
ravages of scurvy. After due rest and medical attention, the chief
carpenter’s mate returned to his duty, and three others recovered so
as to be able to wait on their sick comrades; but Jolliffe, a petty
officer, who had nobly borne up against the disease while actively
employed, when his legs became cramped from resting on board
proved to be one of the most lingering cases.
Surely the nation will never begrudge the cost of expeditions
which give such occasion for the display of the most generous
unselfishness and the noblest devotion!
These sledge-journeys were performed in the face of tremendous
difficulties. Beyond the mere coast-belt, there was little smooth ice;
the tolerably level floes or fields, usually about six feet above the
neighbouring ice, seldom measured a mile across. Their surfaces
were thickly covered with rounded blue-topped ice-humps, averaging
twenty feet high; which lay sometimes in ranges, and sometimes a
hundred to two hundred yards apart, the intervening spaces being
filled with wind-driven snow, and the whole resembling a gusty ocean
suddenly stiffened into rest.[12] Between these floes, like an
embankment of rude formation, extended a vast pile of the wreck
and refuse of previous summers’ broken-up pack-ice, regelated
during the winter into one rugged and confused mass of angular
blocks of various heights up to forty and fifty feet, and of every
imaginable variety of configuration, like the disrupted lava at the
mouth of a crater. These were interspersed with a continuous series
of “steep-sided snow-drifts,” which stretched downwards from the
highest summit of the ice-chaos until lost in the general level at a
distance of about one hundred yards. It may be conceived that it was
not easy to find a passage for the sledges through these labyrinths
of ice and snow. The snow-slopes were by no means an assistance,
for the winter-winds coming chiefly from the west, and the course of
the sledges being due north, they had to be encountered almost at
right angles. Consequently, the journey was an incessant struggle
with ever-recurring obstacles; as fast as one had been conquered,
another presented itself. The pickaxes were in constant requisition,
either to cut a way through the packed-up ice, or out of the
perpendicular side of the high floes. Instead of a steady advance, the
whole party were frequently detained half a day by the necessity of
facing the sledge and hauling it forward a few feet at a time. These
considerations will enable the reader to judge how great must have
been the “pluck,” persistence, and energy which could accomplish a
journey of seventy miles in such exceptional circumstances.
Captain Nares observes—and his eulogium will be endorsed by
the reader—that no two officers could have accomplished this
laborious enterprise with greater ability or courage than Commander
Markham and Lieutenant Parr. And it is but just that the services of
Rawlings and Lawrence, the captains of the two sledges, should be
put on record. In addition to their general cheerfulness and good-
humour,—qualities which always help to lighten difficult work,—to
their care and skill were due the safe return of the sledges, on which
the lives of all depended—safe, uninjured, and in as serviceable a
state as when they left the ship, notwithstanding the terrible
character of the road they had travelled. To such men as these, and
to the brave, patient, resolute sledge-crews generally, we owe the
tribute of our praise. However severe their privations, they never
complained. During this memorable journey to penetrate to the north
over the rugged Polar Oceanic ice, a journey in which the “pluck”
and determination of the British seaman were most conspicuously
displayed, day after day, against obstacles which might well have
been regarded as insurmountable, the two officers and their brave
followers succeeded in advancing the Union Jack to latitude 83° 20’
26″ N.,—or within four hundred miles of the North Pole.
In order to attain this advanced post, the present boundary-mark
of geographical research in that direction, the total distance travelled
was two hundred and seventy-six miles on the outward, and two
hundred and forty-five miles on the homeward journey, though the
farthest direct distance from the ship did not exceed seventy-three
miles. The result of labour so colossal and sufferings so severe
would seem to be, that we must consider a long journey over the
Polar pack-ice, with sledge and boat, to be impracticable at any
season of the year. As the sledges were necessarily advanced each
stage singly, we are able to calculate the exact rate of progression
which may be expected, if it should be thought desirable to push
forward with light sledges, without any additional means of returning
later in the season in the event of a disruption of ice in the rear. The
maximum attained by Commander Markham was two and three-
quarter miles a day; the mean rate being one mile and a quarter.
The outbreak of scurvy rendered Captain Nares very anxious as
to the welfare of Lieutenant Aldrich’s company on their return from
the westward; and the more so, when it was found that the cairn
erected over his depôt of provisions, thirty miles to the north-west,
remained untouched on the day appointed for his arrival there.
Lieutenant May, with the dog-sledge, and three robust men, were
therefore sent to meet him. On the 20th of June the two parties met
at the depôt, and signalled the welcome fact to Captain Nares. It was
fortunate that Lieutenant Aldrich returned when he did, for on the
following day a rapid thaw set in, with the wind from the southward,
and the snow-valleys were rendered impassable for sledges for the
rest of the season. His party, like Commander Markham’s, were
stricken with scurvy, four of them lying helpless on the dog-sledge;
and Lieutenant May’s arrival proved most opportune.
Having now assembled all his company on board the Alert,
Captain Nares was called upon to decide whether it was possible to
carry the work of exploration further, or whether the expedition
should return to England. Owing to the absence of any land with a
northward trend, and the innavigable character of the Polar pack-ice,
he concluded that on neither side of Smith Sound could any ship
advance further northward than the Alert had done; and also, that
from no secure position in Smith Sound was it possible for sledges to
advance nearer to the Pole. If the expedition remained in the vicinity
for another season, the exploration of the shores of Grant Land
might be pursued to the south-west, and of Greenland to the north-
east, but not more than fifty miles beyond the points already
attained. In the weakened condition of the crew, and for so small an
additional gain, Captain Nares decided that it would be unwise to risk
another winter. As soon as the ice broke up, “Ho for merry England!”
A regular thaw did not set in until the last week of June. Water
flowed in the ravines on the 1st of July. After that date the thaw
gradually extended, and increased in rapidity; and on the 23rd a
strong south-west wind drove the pack a mile away from the shore.
On the 26th a cairn was erected on the shore, and a record of the
work of the expedition deposited in it; and on the 31st, a passage
having been cleared through the winter-barrier of icebergs, the Alert,
with a strong south-west wind filling her canvas, pushed out into
Robeson Channel on her homeward voyage. After a run of two miles
along-shore, through a fairly open way between the pack-ice and
what Dr. Kane calls “the ice-foot,” she was checked in her course by
a heavy floe one and a half mile in diameter, which almost touched
the land; and no other shelter being available, she lay up in a small
cove or creek, among a group of icebergs that had gone ashore in
the shallows.
The obstructive floe showed signs of movement early on the
morning of August 1st; and soon afterwards went away to the
northward at the rate of a mile and a half an hour, grinding along the
ice-foot somewhat alarmingly as it advanced towards the ship.
Steam being up, however, the Alert cast off her moorings, and
succeeded in edging between the land and the floe; while the latter
swung round in-shore with a violent jerk, close to the position which
the ship had previously occupied.
We may note here the difference which Captain Nares insists
upon between an ordinary floe, such as is commonly met with in
Arctic waters, and the ancient Polar Sea ice. The former seldom
exceeds six feet in thickness, and breaks into fragments against an
obstruction, or may be charged by a steamship; but the latter, being
some eighty or one hundred feet thick, lifts all impediments out of its
course,—or, so to speak, throws them disdainfully away. “Such was
the case on this occasion: the Polar floe, which,” says Captain
Nares, “we only escaped by a few yards, on nipping against the
heavy breastwork of isolated floebergs lining the coast, some of
them forty feet high and many thousand tons in weight, which had
lately formed our protection from the smaller ice-pieces, tilted them
over one after another, and forced them higher up the land-slope,
like a giant at play, without receiving the slightest harm itself—not a
piece breaking away. It was most providential that, by its twisting
round, the Alert was enabled to escape out of the trap in which she
was enclosed.”
 The shore here presented a formidable line of ice-cliff, from
twenty to forty feet in height, striking down into clear blue water ten
to twenty fathoms deep. The Alert kept onward, so close to the cliff
that the boats hung at her quarter frequently touched it, until again
brought to a stop near Cape Union by the accumulation of the pack.
Her captain, however, was able here to secure her abreast of a large
stream, the current of which had undermined the ice-cliff for some
fifty yards, and floated it off to sea, leaving a kind of cove or harbour
where the ship could be laid alongside the beach in such a manner
that, if the pack struck her, it could only force her on shore. The
reader of Arctic voyages will remember that a somewhat similar
position was once occupied by Sir Edward Parry’s ship, under
somewhat similar circumstances.
When the tide had turned, and began to flow southward, it broke
up the ice all around Cape Union, and formed a narrow water-way,
which offered Captain Nares a chance of escape. Steam was got up
immediately, but, owing to unavoidable delay in shipping the rudder,
the ice closed in before the ship could be carried round. Her last
stage was worse than her first; for she was now cut off from her safe
little port, and no better shelter was available than a slight hollow or
break in the ice-cliff. Here, however, she was brought-to, with the
ice-blocks swirling past her at a distance of twenty yards. At low
water Captain Nares cast off, and bored some way into the pack, so
that the Alert might drift round the cape with the southern tide. At
about a quarter of a mile from the land, she drove along with the ice;
and when the tide slackened, steamed out of the pack before it
began to set to the northward. Then, keeping close in to the ice-foot,
she kept slowly on her course to the southward, the water-way
broadening as she approached Lincoln Bay, which was crossed
without difficulty. When within five miles of Cape Beechey, the tide
turned; but after a short delay a channel opened, allowing the ship to
round the cape. At this point the ice-cliff ends, and the land slopes
gently to the shore—which is protected by a barrier of floebergs,
similar to, but smaller than, those which line the shore of the Polar
Sea. Here the ship was made fast in three fathoms water, within
twenty yards of the shore, about a mile to the south of the cape.
 We dwell on these particulars in order that our readers may form
some idea of the difficulties of Arctic voyaging. The words, “She
forced her way through the ice,” afford no conception whatever of the
obstacles that have to be overcome, and the dangers that have to be
avoided, by a ship navigating in the midst of pack-ice and ice-floes;
or of the skill and vigilance and patience on the part of officers and
men, by which only can the enterprise be brought to a successful
issue.
We are told that on August the 4th snow-squalls blew from the
south-west. As the ice had closed in around the ship, holding it in a
vice, the sportsmen of the party landed, and visited some
neighbouring lakes in search of game. They found a number of wild
geese, and killed fifty-seven, which supplied a welcome addition to
the ordinary bill of fare. Mr. Egerton and a seaman were sent off to
the Discovery, then about twenty miles distant, with orders for her to
prepare for the homeward voyage. We have already related how
they reached the ship in safety.
While the Alert was thus imprisoned, the huge pack-ice in the
offing was carried up and down the strait by the tidal movement, the
wind having the effect of increasing the velocity of the current and
the duration of its flow both northward and southward. The ice
generally was of a lighter character than that in the Polar Sea; but
many heavy Polar floes were driven southward by the gale, and set
into Lady Franklin Sound and Archer Fiord rather than down
Kennedy Channel. Lady Franklin Sound, indeed, seems to be the
receptacle of all the heavy ice that comes south through Robeson
Channel; retaining it until the prevailing westerly winds carry it once
more to the northward, and empty the Sound, previous to its being
refilled on the return of the northerly gales. It is only, says Captain
Nares, in seasons when northerly winds occur more frequently than
westerly ones, that any considerable quantities of the huge Polar ice
are drifted into Smith Sound and Baffin Bay.
The gale of the 6th of August was very violent. The tide rushing
southward, drove a succession of heavy floe-pieces against the
small bergs that protected the ship, and capsized one of them
completely. It was firmly aground when struck by the point of a large
floe; but such was the force of the collision that it was reared erect in
the air to its full height of at least sixty feet above water, when,
turning a complete somersault, like a practised gymnast, it came
down on its back with a shock that shattered it into pieces, and
raised a wave sufficient to roll the ship considerably. Into the gap
thus caused moved the ice, until at last it nipped the Alert, though
not dangerously.
That same evening Lieutenant Rawson and two seamen arrived
from the Discovery, with news of the ill-fortune that had overtaken
the Greenland sledge-party.
It soon became apparent that there was no chance of releasing
the ice-bound ship except by cutting down the heavy floe that held
her prisoner; and accordingly all hands were set to work. After three
days’ toil, so much of the floe was hewn away that at high water it
floated and set the ship free; at the same time the main pack moved
off, and the Alert steamed onward, rejoining her consort, the
Discovery, on the 11th of August.
All the invalids on board the Alert were now removed to the
Discovery, and Captain Nares remained at the entrance to the
harbour, prepared to cross to Polaris Bay, as soon as the ice
permitted, to relieve Lieutenant Beaumont. As before stated,
however, he arrived on the 14th, and relieved the commander of the
expedition of a serious anxiety. Both vessels were now ready to
start, but the state of the ice detained them until the 20th, when, a
“lead” offering through the pack, away they steamed, and arrived
close to Cape Lawrence without encountering any serious obstacle.
Here their old enemy, the ice, again opposed them; and Captain
Nares found only the famous “three courses” of a well-known
statesman open to him: either to return north, to drive ahead into the
pack, or make fast the ships to some of the grounded floebergs. This
last expedient was adopted, and in a land-locked inner basin the
Alert and the Discovery were accordingly secured. But,
unfortunately, at the fall of high water a piece of ice pressed against
the Alert, and at the same time its protecting floeberg drove ashore.
Result: the Alert was aground forward, but with deep water under the
stern. And before she could be released, the tide had fallen fourteen
feet, so that the ship lay over at an angle of 22°, with fore-foot and
keel exposed as far aft as the fore-channels. Nothing could be done
until the tide rose. Then the ship was lightened, and afterwards
hauled off without having undergone any damage.
A passage again opened on the 22nd of August, and the two
ships steamed as far southward as Cape Collinson, with no other
troubles than dense snow-storms, mists, and strong head-winds. But
off the cape, the Alert having to back to escape a nip, she fouled the
Discovery for a moment; the latter escaping, however, with nothing
worse than the loss of a boat’s davit.
The ice gradually breaking up before a strong south-west wind,
the two ships crossed Scoresby Bay, which was perfectly clear, but
rolled with a heavy sea. As they approached Cape Frazer, they were
buffeted by a terrible gale, and put in to Maury Bay, anchoring
among a quantity of grounded ice. Three days were spent in arduous
efforts to double Cape Frazer,—one of the bêtes noires of Arctic
navigators, because it is the meeting-point of the flood-tides, north
and south, one from the Polar Ocean and the other from the Atlantic,
—and Cape Hayes, the boundary-mark of the channel. Then the
voyagers, with glad hearts, passed into Smith Sound; and hugging
the shore as closely as was safe, arrived on the 29th at Prince
Imperial Island, in Dobbin Bay, “every one heartily thankful to be out
of the pack, clear of the straggling icebergs, and for the ships to be
secured to fixed ice once more.”
The temperature now sunk again below freezing-point. The brief
Arctic summer was over, and day and night the young sea-ice
formed continuously. The mists that had hitherto accompanied the
ships cleared away before a brisk northerly wind, and revealed a
magnificent panorama of lofty mountains, white with shrouds of
snow, and deep valleys filled with colossal glaciers. One of these
stretched downwards to the shore, and threw off great icebergs
which floated or stranded in Dobbin Bay. It was named after the
Empress Eugénie, who had taken a lively personal interest in the
expedition.
 Crossing Dobbin Bay on the 1st of September, the voyagers
came within a quarter of a mile of a depôt of provisions established
near Cape Hawks in the previous autumn, and succeeded in
removing a portion. A day or two later Captain Nares landed on
Washington Island, and visited a cairn which he had raised there on
the 12th of August 1865. He visited, also, two old cairns erected by
former explorers; the lichens with which they were gray proved that
they were of earlier date than Dr. Hayes’ expedition.
On the 3rd of September, by dint of steaming assiduously, the
ships rammed their way through a lane of water to the westward of
Cape Hawks, which was inconveniently obstructed by loose pieces
of old ice. After rounding the cape, says the captain, the pack by
drifting away from the land had left unfrozen water and numerous
detached small floes, which forced them to make a very serpentine
course, and occasionally to pass within thirty yards of the low ice-
foot on the shore, fortunately always finding deep water. In this way
they reached Allman Bay, half-way between Cape Hawks and
Franklin Pierce Bay. Meeting here with a belt of new ice, the
Discovery was sent ahead; and under full steam she forced a canal
through the ice, which was from one to three inches thick. From the
lofty hills in the interior a huge glacier leads down to Allman Bay; and
it is a noticeable fact that always in the neighbourhood of a glacier-
stream the water was found nearly fresh, and of the temperature of
32°.
On the 7th our homeward-bound ships reached Norman Lockyer
Island, on the margin of Princess Marie Bay. The season was now
far advanced, and as the slightest mistake might have led to the
vessels being ice-bound for the winter, the two captains ascended to
the highest point of the island to obtain some idea of the prospect
before them. They were much relieved by seeing a large area of
open water some twenty miles distant, which they conjectured would
extend to the mouth of Smith Sound. No time was lost in getting
under way; and the ships crossed two-thirds of the distance before
they fell in with ice. By charging it under full steam, they cleared the
obstacle, and then, through an open-water channel, ran on to Cape
Sabine.
 On the 9th of September they arrived off Cape Isabella, where
they found a small packet of letters and newspapers which had been
left at the depôt by the Pandora. The weather was now calm, and the
wind favourable. Sail was hoisted, therefore, as the supply of coal
began to run short, and on the evening of the 12th the expedition
reached Bardin Bay. During the 13th and the 14th they worked
southward into Wolstenholm Sound; and thence, with a south-
easterly wind, crossed to Cape Byam Martin, which they reached on
the 16th. Two days later they entered the well-known waters of
Melville Bay; on the 25th they arrived at Disco, where, and
afterwards at Egedesminde, they obtained some small supplies of
coal.
Egedesminde was left behind on the 2nd of October, and on the
4th the two ships recrossed the Arctic Circle—exactly fifteen months
from the time of crossing it on the outward voyage. Experiencing
adverse winds, they made but slow progress to the southward; and
as the weather became warmer and damper, a few of the men
suffered from rheumatism and catarrhs. During a heavy gale on the
19th, the two ships separated; but both, as we have seen, reached
the shores of England in safety, where their gallant officers and
crews met with the hearty welcome so thoroughly merited by their
courage, perseverance, and heroic industry.
Some notes on the general results obtained by the expedition in
zoology, botany, and geology, have appeared in the Academy. The
two naturalists under whose care these departments were placed,—
Captain Feilden, in the Alert, and Mr. Hart, in the Discovery,—
worked with unflagging energy and no small success.
Of mammals, the species found farthest north were the Arctic fox,
the wolf, the ermine, the Polar hare, the lemming, and the musk-ox,
—all of which were seen on the shores of the great Polar Basin or
Palæocrystic Sea. No cetaceans were sighted north of Payer
Harbour, near Cape Sabine; a fact which renders all the more
serious the gradual process of extermination of the Greenland (or
right) whale in more southern latitudes. The only seal found beyond
Cape Union, in lat. 82° 15’ N., was the little ringed seal or “floe-rat”
(Phoca hispida).