observers at Lady Franklin Bay, received suggestions, orally and in writing, from various experts in Arctic navigation and exploration, including Capt. George E. Tyson, of the Hall Expedition; Lieut. W. I. Hunt, U. S. N., one of the officers of the Rodgers in her search for the Jeannette; Lieuts. Garlington and Colwell, and Capt. Pike, of the expedition of 1883, Lieut. Schwatka, and Dr. Emil Bessels, chief of the scientific corps of the Polaris Expedition. The report of the commission, based on the results of its inquiries, was submitted early in February. A programme for the expedition

expense, and to require that only volunteers should be sent on the relieving vessels. These restrictions were not adopted. The Secretary of the Navy had already made arrangements for the purchase of two Dundee sealers, the Thetis and the Bear, the former of which was obtained in London, and the latter at St. John's, Newfoundland, and an inquiry having been made as to the possibility of obtaining from the British Government the Alert, which had been the advance ship of the Nares Expedition, that vessel was presented to the Government of the United States without condition.

and carry a supply of coal. While preparations were under way, the Secretary of the Navy received a letter from Capt. Sir George S. Nares, embodying his own suggestions, and those of other experienced officers of the British Navy, in regard to the practical conduct of the expedition. In addition to other provisions, Congress authorized a reward of $25,000, "to be equitably paid or distributed to such ship or ships, person or persons, not in the military or naval service of the United States, as shall discover and rescue, or satisfactorily ascertain the fate of the expedition of Lieut. A. W. Greely," etc. A proclamation offering this reward was issued by the Secretary of the Navy on the 17th of April. The three vessels specially designed for the rescuing expedition were fitted for the Arctic voyage at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, under the direction of Commander Schley, and supplied with every equipment that experience suggested, including material for a house to be erected on the coast of Greenland, and the necessary boats and sledges. The Alert, being the largest, was used as a supply-vessel, and provisions for two years were placed on board. A large supply of coal was also provided, the bulk of which was placed on the schooner Loch Garry. The Thetis was the flag-ship.

The members of the crews were specially enlisted as volunteers. The Bear was the advance vessel, and left for St. John's, Newfoundland, April 23d, the Thetis following May 1st, and the Alert May 10th. After taking additional supplies of seal-skin clothing, and obtaining dogs for sledging, the vessels left for the Greenland coast, the Bear sailing from St. John's May 5th, the Thetis on the 12th, and the Alert a few days later. The next information of the expedition was contained in a dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy from Commander Schley, dated at St. John's, from which the following are extracts:

Thetis, Bear, and Loch Garry arrived here to-day from West Greenland. All well. Separated from Alert 150 miles north during a gale. At 9 P. M. June 22d, five miles off Cape Sabine, in Smith's Sound, Thetis and Bear rescued alive Lieut. A. W. Greely, Sergt. Brainerd, Sergt. Fredericks, Sergt. Long, Hospital Steward Biederbeck, Private Connell, and Sergt. Ellison, the only survivors of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition. Sergt. Ellison had lost both hands and feet by frost-bite, and died July 6th at Godhaven, three days after amputation, which had become imperative. Seventeen of the twenty-five persons composing the expedition perished by starva tion at the point where found. One was drowned while sealing to procure food. Twelve bodies of the dead were rescued and are now on board the Thetis and Bear.

Greely abandoned Fort Conger Aug. 9, 1883, and reached Baird Inlet, Sept. 29th following, with entire party well. Abandoned all his boats and was adrift for thirty days on an ice-floe in Smith Sound. His permanent camp was established Oct. 21, 1888, at the point where he was found. During nine months his party had to live upon a scant allowance of food brought from Fort Conger; that cached at Payer Harbor and Cape Isabella by Sir George Nares in 1875, but found much damaged by lapse of time;

that cached by Beebe at Cape Sabine in 1882, and a small amount saved from wreck of the Proteus in 1883, and landed by Lieuts. Garlington and Colwell on the beach where Greely's party was found camped. When these provisions were consumed the party were forced to live upon boiled strips from their seal-skin clothing, lichens, and shrimps, preserved in good weather when they were strong enough to make gallon measure, the labor was too exhausting to deexertion. As 1,300 shrimps were required to fill a pend upon them entirely to sustain life.

The channel between Cape Sabine and Littleton Island did not close, on account of violent gales all winter, so that 240 rations at latter point could not be reached. All of Greely's records, and all instruments brought by him from Fort Conger, are recovered and are on board.

From Hare Island to Smith's Sound I had a con

stant and furious struggle with ice in impassable floes. Solid barriers of ice were overcome by watchfulness and patience. No opportunity to advance a mile escaped me, and for several hundred miles the ships were forced to ram their way from lead to lead through the ice, varying in thickness from three to six feet, and, when rafted, much greater. The Thetis and Bear reached Cape York June 18th, after a passage of twenty-one days in Melville Bay, with the two advance ships of the Dundee whaling-fleet, and continued to Cape Sabine. Returning seven days later, fell in with seven others of the fleet off Wostenholme Island. Returning across Melville Bay, fell in with the Alert and Loch Garry off Devil's Thumb, struggling through heavy ice.

The Greely party are very much improved since rescue, but were critical in the extreme when found in reaching them would have been fatal to all now and for several days after. Forty-eight hours' delay living.

The season north is late and the closest for years. Smith's Sound was not open when I left Cape Sabine. The winter about Melville Bay was the most severe for twenty years.

On the same day dispatches were received from Lieut. Greely by the Chief of the SignalService Bureau at Washington, from which the following extracts are taken:

off Victoria Head, Aug. 29th. Abandoned steamAbandoned Fort Conger, Aug. 9th. Frozen in pack launch, Sept. 11th, eleven miles northeast of Cocked Hat Island. When on point of landing were three times driven by southwest storms into Kane's Sea. Finally arrived, Sept. 29th, in Baird Inlet. Learning, by scouting parties, of Proteus disaster, and that no provisions had been left for us from Cape Isabella to Sabine, moved and established winter quarters at Camp Clay, half-way between Sabine and Cocked Hat. Inventory showed that by daily ration four and one third ounces ineat, seven bread and dog biscuits, four ounces miscellaneous, the party would have ten days' full rations left for crossing Smith's Sound to Littleton Island, March 1st. Unfortunately, Smith's Sound remained open the entire winter, rendering crossing impossible. Game failed despite daily hunting from early February. Before sun returned only 500 pounds of meat obtained. This year minute shrimps, sea-weed, sassafras, rock-lichens, and sealskin were resorted to for food, with results as shown by the number of survivors. The last regular food was issued May 14th. Only 150 pounds of meat left by Garlington, compelled me to send in November four men to obtain 144 pounds of English meat at Isabella. During the trip Ellison froze solid both hands and feet, and lost them, surviving, however, through our terrible winter and spring until July 8th. Survivors owe their lives to the indomitable energy of Capt. Schley and Lieut. Emory, who, preceded by three and accompanied by five whalers, forced their vessels from Upernavik, through Melville Bay, into

North Water at Cape York with the foremost whaler. They gained a yard whenever possible, and always held it. Smith's Sound was crossed and party rescued during one of the most violent gales we have ever known. Boats handled only at imminent risk of swamping. Four of us then unable to walk, and could not have survived exceeding twenty-four hours. Every care and attention given us. Saved and bring back copies meteorological, tidal, astronomical, magnetic, pendulum, and other observations; also pendulum, Yale, and standard thermometer. Fortyeight photographic negatives, collection of blanks, and photographic proofs.

For the first time in three centuries England yields the honor of the farthest north. Lieut. Lockwood and Sergt. Brainerd, May 13th, reached Lockwood Island, latitude 83° 24', longitude 44° 5'. They saw,

saw the northern shore termination, some twenty miles west, the southern shore extending some fifty miles, with Cape Lockwood some seventy miles distant, apparently a separate land from Grinnell Land. Have named the new land Arthur Land. Lieut. Lockwood followed, going and returning on ice-cap averaging about 150 feet perpendicular face. It follows that the Grinnell Land interior is ice-capped with a beit of country some sixty miles wide between the northern and southern ice-caps.

In March, 1884, Sergt. Long, while hunting, looked from the northwest side of Mount Carey to Hayes Sound, sceing on the northern coast three capes westward of the farthest seen by Nares in 1876. The sound extends some twenty miles farther west than shown by the English chart, but is possibly shut in by land which showed up across the western end.

from 2,000 feet elevation, no land north or northwest, but to the northeast, Greenland, Cape Robert Lincoln, latitude 83° 35', longitude 38. Lieut. Lockwood was turned back in 1883 by open water on North Greenland shore, party barely escaping drift into Polar Ocean. Dr. Pavy, in 1882, following Markham route, was adrift one day in Polar Ocean north of Cape Joseph Henry, and escaped to land, abandoning nearly everything. In 1882 I made a spring and later a summer trip into the interior of Grinnell Land, discovering Lake Hazen, some sixty by ten miles in extent, which, fed by ice-cap of North Grinnell Land, drains Ruggles River and Weyprecht Fiord into Conybeare Bay and Archer Fiord. From the summit of Mount Arthur, 5,000 feet, the contour that Grinnell Land tends directly south from Lieut. Aldrich's farthest in 1876. In 1883 Lieut. Lockwood and Sergt. Brainerd succeeded in crossing Grinnell Land, and ninety miles from Beatrix Bay, the head of Archer's Fiord, struck the head of a fiord from the western sea, temporarily named by Lockwood the Greely Fiord. From the center of the fiord, in latitude 80° 30', longitude 78° 30', Lieut. Lockwood

of land west of the Conger Mountains convinced me

The two years' station duties, observations, all explorations, and the retreat to Cape Sabine were ac complished without loss of life, disease, serious accident, or even severe frost-bites. No scurvy was experienced at Conger, and but one death from it occurred last winter.

The story of the relief trips, as gathered from the officers of the Thetis and Bear, may be briefly told. The Thetis arrived at Disco, on the coast of Greenland, May 22d, ten days from St. John's. The Bear had arrived on the 15th, and, after one ineffectual attempt to proceed to Upernavik, had departed a second time for that point on the 21st. The Thetis proceeded in the same direction, accompanied still by the Loch Garry, on the 24th, and after severe struggles with the ice, using torpedoes to open the way, arrived at Upernavik, May 29th, and joined the Bear. Several Dundee whalers were encountered, anxious to join in the search.

On the same day the Thetis and Bear with several whalers left Upernavik, the Loch Garry remaining to await the Alert and a more favorable season. After brief stops at Kingston and Tessnisek and a long battle with ice-floes, in which gun-cotton and gunpowder torpedoes were several times resorted to, Cape York was sighted on the 18th of June. Here the vessels passed into open water, the whalers Wolf and Aurora leading, closely followed by the Bear and Thetis, the whaler Arctic bringing up the rear. Communication was made with the natives at Cape York, but nothing was learned. The Bear was sent on at once to Carey Island, while the Thetis visited Conical Rock, Wostenholme Island, Dalrymple Rock, Sanders Island, Cape Parry, and Northumberland and Hakluyt Islands on the way to Littleton Island, where the two vessels were to meet again. A record was deposited at Cape Parry. Both vessels reached Littleton Island on the 21st. Nares's cairn was found intact, with provisions in good condition; proving that Greely had not been on the east side of Smith's Sound. The Garlington and Beebe records were found and brought off; 760 rations were added to those left by Nares; letters were prepared to be taken back by the Alert in case the expedition did not return during the summer, and preparations were made for crossing the sound. On the 22d the passage was made to Payer Harbor, Cape Sabine, the Bear proceeding in advance. A landing was immediately made and searching parties sent out. Records of the Greely party were found by Lieut. Taunt and Ensign Harlow on Brevoort and Starnecht Islands, dated Oct. 21, 1883. These gave an account of the retreat from Lady Franklin Bay, and described the position of the quarters of the party, Camp Clay, at Baird Inlet, midway between Cape Sabine and Cocked Hat Island. Commander Schley went on hoard the Bear and started at once for the camp, the Thetis following. An officer of the Thetis gives the following account of the landing:

The wind had increased to well-nigh a hurricane It tore over the hills in furious blasts, driving the water in sheets before it, and heeling the ship to an uncomfortable degree. The Bear had steamed nearly up to the ice, and people could be seen running about on shore. Some one was seen on the ice signaling with flags. The message was: "Send doctor with stretchers, and Harlow with photograph-machine; seven alive." Boats were lowered at once, manned with strong crews, and a party of officers and men started for the shore. It seemed a long pull. It was a hard pull; but with water dashing over the rail at every lunge, and rolling gunwales-under in the short but heavy seas, we finally reached the ice-foot, and hurried to the scene of misery. A few steps from the landing we met a black face, with horrid, staring eyes, wrapped in a clean blanket that contrasted strangely with the filthy clothes that covered the body of one of the survivors. It was Fredericks, who was strong enough to walk to the boats-a miserable sight, but cheerful compared with the one that met our gaze a few steps farther on. A slight incline to the left, and the busy relief parties came in view. Passing a small fire on which pots of milk were warming, we came to

the tent, under which lay four of the poor fellows. Two lay outside, one with his face swollen so that he that filled his being. The other was muttering, in a could barely show by his eyes the wild excitement voice that could scarcely be heard in the howling of the gale, his hungry appeal for food. Pushing aside the flags of the tent, we saw a sight the like of which we trust never to see again. Crowded together in the little of the tent that was left standing lay Greely and three of his men in their sleeping-bags, their faces black with dirt. Their hollow cheeks and their gleaming eyes made a picture that we shall never forget, and told a story that has but few rivals in the histories of men with the hand of death laid upon them; one, inmiserable sufferings. The short glance revealed four deed, was gasping his last feeble breath while food and stimulants were forced between his teeth. The fate of the other three was a question of a very few hours. ed condition. To move against such a wind was an The gale was killing them in their weak and exhaustimpossibility. An able-bodied, healthy man bent to it at times. So there they lay, waiting for death, unable to cook the pitiful ration of tanned seal-skin and lichens that they called their meal. The poor milk, beef-tea, and crackers, and carried to the boats. sufferers were wrapped in blankets, fed with warm A photograph was taken of the camp despite the time, 11 P. M., and the weather. The living having been provided for, our next sad duty lay with the dead. The graves were on the summit of a ridge behind the camp-ten of them, with their scanty covering of gravel. Each body was carefully unearthed and wrapped in blankets, marked to correspond with its number on the diagram that was made, and carried to the boats. This task being finished, and the bodies divided between the boats, the next difficulty was to got safely alongside, and could discharge their sad reach the ship. It seems almost a miracle that they cargoes, with the survivors in charge of the sympathizing officers and crew, who removed their rags, piled on the dory and covered with a tarpaulin. We bathed, and fed them. Their dead comrades were steamed back to Payer Harbor, and about 4 A. M. made fast to the ice again in about the same place we first had the information that led to the stirring events of the night.

lected every scrap and relic appertaining to it. The The next day the Bear revisited the camp, and colcairns were revisited, and the records left by Greely, his pendulum, journals, the flag of the Nares expedition that he proudly brings back from the place where they left it as marking their highest latitude, his instruments, and their records, were all secured.

The following is Commander Schley's description of the scene that greeted his eyes at the tent:

Lieut. Greely was found in his sleeping-bag, his body inclined forward and head resting upon his left hand. The "Book of Common Prayer" was open and held in his right hand. He appeared to be reading prayers to Private Connell, whose condition was most desperate and critical. He was cold to the waist; all sensation of hunger gone; was speechless and almost breathless; his eyes were fixed and glassy. Indeed, his weakness was such that it was with difficulty he swallowed the stimulants given him by Drs. Green and Ames. His jaws had dropped, his heart was barely pulsating, and his body temperature very low. This tender scene of a helpless, almost famished, officer consoling a dying companion was, in itself, one that brought tears to the eyes of the strongest and stoutest of those who stood about them on the merciful errand of relief. Sergts. Brainerd and Fredericks, and Hospital Steward Biederbeck were extremely weak, and hardly able to stand; they were no longer able to venture away from their camp to seek food, nor to prepare their simple diet of boiled seal-skin, nor to collect lichens, nor to catch shrimps, upon which they had to depend to a great extent to sustain life. Their faces,

hands, and limbs were swollen to such an extent that they could not be recognized. This indicated that the entire party had but a short lease of life, probably not more than forty-eight hours at most. This fact was recognized by them all, and had come to them from their experience during that long and desolate winter in watching their dying companions, as one after another passed away from among them forever. Poor Sergt. Ellison was found in his sleeping-bag, where he had lain helpless and hopeless for months, with hands and feet frozen off. Strapped to one of the stumps was found a spoon, which some companion had seeured there to enable him to feed himself. His physical condition otherwise appeared to be the best of any of the survivors, and this may be attributed to the fact that each of his companions had doled out to him, from their small allowance of food, something to help him, on account of his complete helplessness to add anything to his own by hunting about the rocks for lichens, or catching shrimps. He suffered no waste of strength by exertion incident thereto. This care of Ellison was such as only brave and generous men, suffering with each other under the most desperate

circumstances, could think of.

The vessels ran across to Littleton Island on the 23d of June, and left there the day following, taking up the records, left for the Alert, and substituting others, giving the results of the expedition and directions for her future movements. Seven of the Dundee whalers were met off Cape Parry, working westward. They were informed that the quest was over. On the 30th the Alert and Loch Garry were encountered struggling with the ice off the Devil's Thumb. They turned back, and the combined squadron reached Upernavik July 2d. The Thetis and Bear stopped to take on coal, left there by the Loch Garry, and the others proceeded to Disco, where all were again united on the 5th. Leaving there on the 6th, they arrived at St. John's on the 17th.

The Greely expedition of 1881 was undertaken in pursuance of a plan adopted by the International Geographical Congress at Hamburg in 1879, on the suggestion of Lieut. Weyprecht, of Austria, the discoverer of Franz-Josef Land, for the establishment of thirteen circumpolar stations for scientific observation. It was fitted out under authority of an act of Congress, approved May 1, 1880. The party was to be composed of three officers of the army, one acting assistant-surgeon, and nineteen enlisted men, selected by recommendation from the ranks of the army. The appropriation for the expedition was made by act of Congress, March 3, 1881. Lieut. A. W. Greely was appointed to take command, and the spot chosen for the station was Discovery Harbor, on the shores of Lady Franklin Bay, latitude 81° 44′ north and longitude 64° 45′ west. The entire party selected for the service was as follows:

First Lieut. A. W. Greely, Fifth Cavalry; Acting Signal-Service Officer and Assistant, Second Lieut. Frederick F. Kislingbury, Eleventh Infantry; Acting Signal Officer, Second Lieut. James B. Lockwood, Twenty-third Infantry; Acting Signal Officers, Sergts. Edward Israel, Winfield S. Jewell, George W. Rice, David C. Ralston, Hampton S. Gardner, William H. Cross, David L. Brainerd, and David Linn; corporals and privates, Nicholas Salor, Charles Elliot, Charles B. Henry, Maurice Connell, Jacob Bender,

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Francis Long, William Whistler, Henry Biederbeck, Julius Fredericks, and William A. Ellis. Octave Pavy, M. D., of Disco, Greenland, was commissioned as Acting Assistant Surgeon, and accompanied the expedition in that capacity.

Lieut. Greely received his instructions in April, 1881, and proceeded to St. John's, where he chartered the Proteus, and prepared it for the expedition, taking materials for a house, and stores for twenty-seven months. The Proteus sailed from St. John's July 7th, and touched at Disco and Upernavik to procure sledges, dogs, skins, and dog-food. Two Esquimau dogdrivers were added to the party at Proven.

From Carl Ritter Bay progress was obstructed by ice, but way was gradually forced to Discovery Harbor, where a landing was made August 12th. The cargo was speedily discharged, 140 tons of coal were landed, the house was rapidly put up. The station received the name of Fort Conger, and on the 18th of August the Proteus left the party to its Arctic isolation. The last communication from Greely to his superior, the Chief Signal-Officer at Washington, in 1881, was the following:

Entered Lady Franklin Bay one month from leaving St. John's. Obtained natives' skin-clothing and dogs at Godhaven, Rittenbek, Upernavik, and Proven. Made most remarkable trip recorded from Upernavik through middle passage to Cape York in 36 hours, and lin Bay, though detained 32 hours by fog. Entered in six days, two hours from Upernavik to Lady FrankLady Franklin Bay, having meanwhile examined the English depot at Carey Island. Recovered the entire English Arctic mail at Littleton Island. Discovered the transit instrument of the Polaris in the quarters at Lifeboat Cove; obtained the record at Washington Irving Island. Overhauled the English depot at Cape Hawks, and landed the depot material at Carl Ritter Bay. Our vessel never met a pack worthy of the name, and was not stopped by ice until it was inside Cape Lieber, Lady Franklin Bay, eight miles from our destination, where we were delayed one week, being forced back south of the eightieth parallel. Entered Discovery Harbor August 11th, where our station is located, Water-Course Bay being impracticable for musk cattle. The weather is fine. Our building is landing. Have killed here three months' rations of framed and being covered. Party all well.

A week after the Proteus left the party, their house was finished. Scientific observations were begun at once, including in their scope meteorology, astronomy, magnetism, the temperature of the sea, thickness of the ice, the direction and speed of the tides, and the velocity of the wind and of sound at different temperatures. On the 1st of September Sergeant Brainerd, in charge of a party of five in a whale-boat, set out to the northwest and established a cache of provisions for exploring parties in the spring, near Cape Beechy, on the west side of Robeson Channel. The ice

prevented them from proceeding farther, and after a struggle of fifteen hours with the oars, they were forced to abandon their boat and return to Port Conger overland. In November Lieut. Lockwood and Sergeant Brainerd with seven men attempted to cross Kennedy Channel to the Greenland coast, and examine the provisions left by Capt. Hall, of the Polaris, in