STARTLING NEWS. 117 



want assistance to go for the captain and doctor and nine 

 other men. [Signed] 



WM. C. F. NlNDERMANN, 



Louis P. NOROS, 



Seamen U. S. N. 



Reply in haste ; want food and clothing." 



I immediately started with dog-sleds for Bulun, October 

 30th, hoping to intercept the commandant on the way ; but 

 he had reindeer, and traveled by a different route. Master 

 John W. Danenhower, having recovered the use of his eyes, 

 had been placed in charge of my party, with orders to follow 

 me to Bulun as soon as transportation could be obtained. 



I arrived at Bulun at five P. M., November 2d, and found 

 the two men in a very exhausted condition. From them I 

 learned the following particulars of what transpired subse- 

 quent to October 1st, the date of the latest of Lieutenant 

 DeLong's records. 



The party (DeLong's) crossed the Lena to the west bank 

 on October 1st, at a summer hunting-lodge called Usterda. 

 The toes of seaman H. H. Erickson having been amputated, 

 he was placed upon an improvised sled, which was hauled by 

 his comrades, several of whom were hardly able to walk, 

 owing to frozen feet and legs. They proceeded south slowly 

 for two days, and crossed a small branch of the Lena, which 

 they had to wade. On October 6th they stopped at a small 

 hut, where Erickson died the next day, and was buried in the 

 Lena. 



By this time they were in a deplorable condition, having 

 eaten their last dog-meat, and being on an allowance of three 

 ounces of alcohol per man per day. They proceeded south 

 until October 9th, when Lieutenant DeLong decided to send 

 two men ahead to seek relief. 



The feet of Nindermann and Noros were better than those 

 of the others, and they were supplied with blankets and a 

 Remington rifle (forty rounds of ammunition), and six 

 ounces of alcohol, which was a per capita division of the 

 whole stock of the latter. They were ordered to proceed 



