466 THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



the lettering had become almost obliterated and had then 

 thrown it away, and there had been some difficulty in find- 

 ing it again. By these three records I learned where Lieu- 

 tenant De Long had been, and of his course to the southward. 

 I then went to look up the natives who had found the 

 records, and told them they must take me to the most 

 northerly hut, where one of the papers had been found. 



Next morning I started for Ballock, the northermost hut, 

 before starting making the people distinctly understand that 

 I must have twenty days' provisions for myself, the dogs 

 and their drivers. As there was nothing but frozen fish, I 

 selected twenty good ones for myself, allowing myself one 

 a day, telling the drivers they should get two apiece for 

 themselves per day and sufficient for the dogs, all of which 

 they perfectly understood. But in loading the sleds they 

 put on the twenty fish I had selected, put on as few as they 

 could for themselves, but none at all for the dogs. I found 

 out afterward that the people had really no food at all to 

 live on, and had given me all the fish they could spare. Of 

 this I knew nothing at the time. We arrived at Ballock 

 that night. 



Next morning at daylight, following the direction of the 

 record, I followed the main northern branch of the Lena, 

 keeping the east bank aboard until I reached the sea. 

 Then I hurried, and followed the coast for five or six miles, 

 and, very much to the surprise of the natives, sighted the 

 pole of the flagstaff which De Long had planted to mark 

 the cache. They were very much astonished that I should 

 tell them what would be found there. I found the things 

 carefully placed on a groundwork of sticks to keep them 

 clear of the earth, and then carefully covered with old sleep- 

 ing bags and rags and bits of canvas. The wind had carried 

 away the canvas and most of the covering, and the cache 

 was covered with snow. I took the things out and loaded 

 the sleds with everything that I found, with the exception 

 of one oar. The ice had shoved up on the beach within a 

 few yards of the cache. After searching the beach for a 



