90 THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



By Lena's tide, whose waters never sleep, 

 And hyperborean blasts perpetual revel keep, 



And cold and death combine ; 

 Where nature spreads her icy mantle o'er 

 The desert steppes and wilds forever more, 



DeLong and Melville pine. 



Two nations vie in competition brave 

 The lost to trace, the rescued few to save, 



Frost-bitten, maimed and blind ; 

 Whilst far away, where western breezes blow, 

 Where Minnesota's fertile prairies glow, 



A woman waits resigned. 



A world looks on with sad and anxious gaze, 

 And Science gropes anew in troubled maze, 



And men begin to doubt ; 



Since Norsemen sailed, full twice rive hundred years 

 Have rolled away, and strewn the floes with tears, 



To trace the pole about. 



And still they die, and still the years roll on ; 

 Bold Franklin erst, and now perchance DeLong 



Two of a burdened roll. 



' Fair Science ' mourns, but must not, cannot stay 

 In such a strait, nor falter in the way, 



Till found the Northern pole. 



Before continuing the narrative, it will be well to say 

 something of the great Siberian river, which DeLong chose 

 as his objective point on leaving the New Siberian Islands ; 

 and of the Siberian tundra, on Avhose northern edge he was 

 thrown by the fortunes of exploration at an inclement season 

 of the year. 



