PUTNAM SEEN DRIFTING SOUTH. 411 



started for North Head to notify Mr. Waring of the sad 

 affair. After crossing the bay they met Waring and told 

 him of the calamity. He told them to proceed to Camp Hunt 

 in obedience to the orders of Lieutenant Berry, and set out 

 himself on a search along the coast. The same afternoon he 

 received a note from Seaman Gahill, one of the men stationed 

 at the village at South Head, stating that Putnam had been 

 seen on that morning on an ice floe about three miles from 

 the shore. The natives would not launch their skin boats 

 on account of the intervening thin ice, although Mr. Gahill 

 offered large rewards to induce them to do so. 



Late in the afternoon of the following day, 14th, word was 

 received that Putnam had been seen from a village six miles 

 south of South Head, on the ice eight miles from shore, and that 

 the natives were making preparations to rescue him. Waring 

 pushed on to the village, reaching it that night through a 

 heavy wind and snow-storm blowing hard off shore. It was 

 here ascertained that on the preceding day an attempt had 

 been made by four men of the Rodgers crew, assisted by two 

 natives, to rescue Putnam ; but after proceeding nearly three 

 miles they were forced to return, the boat having been cut 

 through in so many places that they were barely able to keep 

 her afloat until shore was reached. 



Another severe off-shore storm was now raging, and the 

 unfortunate man was lost sight of. The natives were confi- 

 dent that the ice floe would be driven inside of a point some 

 distance down the coast, and preparations were immediately 

 made to go down to the point as soon as the weather would 

 permit. There was trouble in procuring dogs to travel, 

 because the natives at both North and South Head were 

 afraid, on account of some previous difficulty with the natives 

 at Indian Point, to go down the coast or to allow their dogs 

 to go, saying they would be killed. At last, however, a 

 team was scraped up from four villages, ranging over a space 

 of thirty or forty miles. 



It was the 17th before another start could be made. The 

 day opened stormy, but soon moderated, and the search con- 



