FOUND BY MELVILLE 125 



it next day. Who the captain was the sailors could 

 not make out ; but three days afterwards, that is on 

 the 3rd of November, while Nindemaim lay on the 

 bed and Noros was sitting on the table, a man came in 

 dressed in fur. 



"My God, Mr. Melville!" said Noros, recognising 

 him as soon as he spoke. " Are you alive ? We 

 thought that the whale-boats were all dead ! " 



The- exile had handed the note to Melville, whom he 

 knew as the captain, and his difficulty in understanding 

 the sailors had been in their speaking of one boat 

 while he had only seen the other. The whale-boat 

 crew had reached a village opposite to where he lived, 

 and he had agreed to take them to Bulun, and he was 

 on his way there to arrange for their transport when he 

 heard of the sailors. Like a sensible man he ordered 

 the men to be sent to Bulun, and had hurried there, 

 made his arrangements with the commandant and re- 

 turned to Melville, who, seeing the urgency of the 

 case as soon as he read the letter, had started at once, 

 leaving his party to follow. 



Melville, as soon as possible, went off along the 

 track of the two sailors, who were too weak to go 

 with him, and eventually found the chronometer and 

 the log-books and other records ; but the winter was 

 too far advanced for him to do more, and he had 

 to return, after a journey of over six hundred miles, 

 to try again in the spring. Then, accompanied by 

 Nindemann, he went north, and came upon the bodies 

 of the commander and those who had perished with 

 him, and three or four feet behind De Long, as if 

 he had tossed it over his shoulder, lay the journal in 



