366 GREELY'S ARCTIC WINTER OF STARVATION 



heavy snow squalls. Suddenly Rice began to talk wildly and then 

 staggered. Fredericks grasped him by the arm and tried to keep 

 him up, but the cold and starvation had too tight a hold upon their 

 victim. He vainly endeavored to pull himself together, but only 

 for a moment ; then he sank down on the snow, babbling about the 

 feast he was going to enjoy. 



His comrade tried to restore him by giving him some of the 

 stimulants they had with them, and did not hesitate to strip off his 

 own fur coat to lay upon him, sitting the while, holding his hands, 

 and exposed to all the biting fury of the Arctic wind, in his shirt 

 sleeves. But everything was useless; Rice was too worn out and 

 too weak to fight further, and died as he faintly talked of the food 

 he fancied he was eating. 



The shock to Fredericks was almost overwhelming, for he was 

 miles away from the camp, chilled to the bone, and with only a little 

 coffee and spirits of ammonia to revive his own drooping vitality. 

 Yet he would not leave his dead comrade until he had reverently 

 laid him in a shallow resting-place in the snow, though it almost 

 cost him his life to pay this last tribute. 



When he at last managed to reach the camp with his sad tidings 

 he was almost gone, and the news he brought plunged every one 

 into the lowest depths of sorrow, for Rice had always been one of 

 the bravest and best of the party. Those who were able to do so, 

 attended Fredericks and revived him. 



To those who were weakest the end of Rice was a fatal blow, 

 and the next day or so saw three or four pass away, one of whom 

 was the intrepid Lockwood. A very few more days and all would 

 have gone but for a gleam of .good fortune. A young bear was 

 killed, and the 400 pounds of meat obtained from it was the salva- 

 tion of the survivors. 



Several seals were seen in the straits and a few walrus, and all 

 who could still handle a gun were daily striving to obtain fresh 

 supplies for the larder. Eskimo Jens, who hunted assiduously, sue- 



