344 MELVILLE FINDS REMAINS OF DELONG PARTY 



hunters he received some of the records left by Captain DeLong. 

 These records indicated where he should look for the log-books, 

 chronometers and other articles that had been abandoned, and these 

 he quickly found in a cache erected on the ocean shore, its location 

 marked by a tall flagstaff. 



For three weeks afterwards the search was diligently con- 

 tinued, not without much suffering on the part of the searching 

 party, the weather being very severe, but no traces of the lost men 

 were found. The natives knew nothing of them, and it became 

 certain that they had ceased to live, in view of the fact that their 

 food supply had been practically exhausted when the two seamen 

 left them. Further search, with the hope of finding any of them 

 alive, was plainly useless. That they had all perished was beyond 

 doubt, and Melville sadly returned, having done all that it was 

 possible to do in the wintry conditions then prevailing. 



He brought the relics he had found to Bulem, and from there 

 proceeded with them to Yakutsk, the nearest place where the sup- 

 plies needed and the requisite orders from the Russian authorities to 

 its subordinates could be procured. The logs and papers were placed 

 in charge of Lieutenant Danenhower, to be taken to the United 

 States, and under orders telegraphed from the Navy Department 

 Melville prepared for a search for the remains of his late com- 

 panions. 



Setting out again in the midwinter season, he proceeded north, 

 and, accompanied by seamen Nindemann and Bartlett, the latter 

 having picked up some knowledge of Russian speech, he resumed 

 his search. It was March i6th when he first came upon the track 

 of his lost companions. On that date he found the hut in which 

 they had slept before crossing the river. On the 23d he reached the 

 location of their sad death. 



The resting place of the unfortunate voyagers was indicated 

 by four poles lashed together and projecting from the deep snow 

 drift, while the muzzle of a Remington rifle stood eight inches above 



