British Arctic Expedition

Although the expedition failed to reach the North Pole, the coasts of Greenland and Ellesmere Island were extensively explored and large amounts of scientific data were collected.

Up to this time, it had been a popular theory that this route would lead to the supposed Open Polar Sea, an ice-free region surrounding the pole, but Nares found only a wasteland of ice.

A sledging party under Commander Albert Hastings Markham set a new record, Farthest North of 83° 20′ 26″ N. Meanwhile, senior lieutenant Lewis Beaumont led a dog sled party from Discovery Harbour heading eastward in April 1876 to explore the northwestern shores of Greenland, reaching Sherard Osborn Fjord before turning back on 22 May.

However, naval personnel and topographers, among them Thomas Mitchell, did succeed in documenting, by photograph, Inuit and the landscapes of what would become Canada's Northwest Territories and, later, Nunavut.

Other features named after the expedition include the Markham Ice Shelf, Nares Strait, Repulse Harbour and Alert, the most northerly permanently inhabited place on Earth.