336 HORRORS OF THE "JEANNETTE" EXPEDITION 



degrees 14 minutes 57 seconds north, longitude 154 degrees 58 

 minutes 45 seconds east, in a depth of thirty-eight fathoms. 



Hopeless was now the situation of Captain DeLong and his 

 officers and crew, fearful the fate that faced them. At the dread 

 distance of three hundred and fifty miles from the Siberian coast, 

 with long and toilsome marches over rough hummocks before them, 

 and a desolate coast to land upon, and with a subsequent journey 

 of over fifteen hundred miles to Yakutsk, the nearest Russian 

 city, the outlook was sadly discouraging. Some of the men also 

 were sick, suffering from lead poisoning due to the tins of canned 

 goods, while Lieutenant Chipp had just risen from a sick bed and 

 Danenhower had long been an invalid from the condition of his 

 eyes. 



Yet with fortitude and hope they faced the situation before 

 them. They had three good boats, had sledges, clothing and am- 

 munition, and a large supply of provisions, including nearly five 

 thousand pounds of American pemmican in canisters, about fifteen 

 hundred pounds of other canned provisions and an equal weight 

 of bread, while their guns could be depended upon to bring them 

 an occasional supply of fresh meat. 



On June i6th the order was given that a start should be made 

 at 6 P. M. on the following day, a night march being decided on to 

 avoid blindness from the intense glare of the sunlight on the ice. 

 Dinner was to be at midnight, supper at 6 A. M., and sleep during 

 the hours of day. The day's delay was made to give the sick a 

 chance to recuperate. Before setting out DeLong prepared a rec- 

 ord of the loss of the "J eannette " an d the southward start, sewing 

 it up in a piece of black rubber enclosed within an empty boat breaker 

 and trusting it to the waves. It was their purpose, he said, to seek 

 to reach the New Siberian Islands and from them make their way 

 by boats to the coast of Siberia. 



Yet the work before them was slow and toilsome. Their 

 boats and provision sledges had to be drawn over the hummocky 

 ice, each officer and man being provided with a harness fashioned 



