376 THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



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from the north to Bykoff, saw the footprints of the party two 

 days old and picked up the Remington which DeLong had 

 left in a hut half way from the landing place to the bluff. 

 The natives were frightened, and thought that the footprints 

 were those of smugglers or robbers, and left the ground with- 

 out following. On arriving at Geemovialocke they heard of 

 the presence of the Melville party and the loss of the 

 captain's party, and they, fearing to be punished for not fol- 

 lowing the footsteps, kept their information to themselves 

 for some weeks, until too late. 



" DeLong made mistakes in endeavoring to secure the 

 safety of his own private logs, which were bulky, as well as 

 the scientific instruments and other useless impedimenta a 

 heavy burden for the men. These could have been left in the 

 cache near the place where they landed, but they had to be 

 borne by the men through all the days of their weary march. 

 These things filled one entire dog sled when found near the 

 bluff. After Noros and Nindermann left, the party did not 

 make more than eighteen miles from October 9th to the 30th. 



" DeLong's last effort was to carry his private logs and 

 charts up from the place under the bluff, where Mr. Collins 

 and the others died, and where they would have been swept 

 away by the spring floods, to the top of the bluff where he and 

 the doctor and Ah Sam perished. But he only succeeded in 

 carrying the chart case up. Even before Noros and Ninder- 

 mann left, DeLong was very weak. He used to walk ten 

 minutes and then lie down to rest, saying to the men: 



" ' Don't mind me ; go on as far as you can. I will follow.' 



" During his wanderings on the delta DeLong built a large 

 bonfire as high as thirty feet every night, the last one being 

 a few hundred yards from the bluff where they all perished, 

 In the hopes of attracting the attention of parties who, he 

 kept saying, would certainly be out looking for him. But 

 the fires blazed in vain. There was not a human being at 

 the time of their death within a hundred miles. Melville's 

 party at Geemovialocke were about this distance away." 



