CHAPTER XV. 



LIEUTENANT DANENHO WEE'S NARRATIVE. 



rriHE Jeannette left San Francisco on the 8th of July, 

 -L 1879, with a full outfit for three years, with five com- 

 missioned officers of the navy, two civil scientists, and twen- 

 ty-four of the ship's company. We arrived at Ounalaska on 

 the 3d of August, after a long passage caused by head winds 

 and the vessel being laden below her proper bearings. The 

 Jeannette was perfectly seaworthy, having been thoroughly 

 put in order at Mare Island before starting. After coaling- 

 ship at Ounalaska we proceeded to St. Michael's, Alaska, to 

 meet our supply schooner, the Fanny A. Hyde. There we 

 filled up with stores, got fur clothing, purchased forty dogs 

 and engaged two American Indians Anequin and Alexai 

 as hunters and dog-drivers, thus completing our complement 

 of thirty-three. On the 25th of August we crossed Bering's 

 Sea, in a very heavy gale, and though the ship was loaded 

 very deeply she behaved admirably. 



We visited St. Lawrence Bay in order to take in coal and 

 the remaining supplies from the schooner, as well as to con- 

 verse with the native Chukches and to get news of Nordens- 

 kiold. We met about twenty natives, one of whom had 

 learned a little English from American traders, and he told 

 us that a steamer had passed south the previous June. The 

 natives were ragged and dirty, and had no food to dispose of. 

 We shot some wild fowl, and then we saw remains of vessels 

 burned by the Shenandoah. Up the St. Lawrence Bay we 

 found magnificent scenery. Wo sent off our last mail by the 

 supply schooner, and on the 27th of August, seven P. M., we 

 started north. Next day we passed through Bering's Strait. 

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