208 RESCUE OF GREELY PARTY 



as he saw nothing. A second visit, fifteen minutes later, brought him within 

 fifty yards of the Bear's steam-cutter and in view of the rehef ships coming 

 around Cape Sabine. When the steam-cutter ran into the beach where 

 Long was seen he rolled down the ice-covered cliff and was taken into the 

 cutter. He informed Lieutenant Colwell that the location of the camp was 

 just over the cliff. 



"In the case of Sergeant Elison the medical officers were fearful from the 

 first that his chances of life were very small. As soon as proper food was 

 available and the digestive functions should be re-established fully, the health- 

 ful round of blood circulation would begin its distribution of new life to the 

 injured parts, and inflammation would naturally occur. If Elison's strength 

 should increase more rapidly than the inflammation, amputation of the injured 

 parts would perhaps save his life. Several days after his rescue, June 28, Dr. 

 Green reported that Elison was threatened with congestion of the brain. The 

 symptoms increased rapidly until the poor fellow lost his reason. At God- 

 haven his condition was so critical that the surgeon of the expedition, after 

 consultation, determined to amputate both feet above the ankle as the only 

 chance of life left the sufferer. Disease, however, triumphed, and amid the 

 bleak scenes that had surrounded him for three years in his heroic sacrifice, 

 and within the desolate solitude of that region of everlasting ice and snow, 

 surrounded by his sorrowing comrades, he passed away about 3 a. m. of July 

 7, three days after the amputation. 



"Lieutenant Greely was physically the weakest, but mentally the most vig- 

 orous of his party. He had lain in his sleeping bag for weeks on account of his 

 gradually failing strength. He was unable to stand alone for any length of 

 time, and was almost helpless except in a sitting posture ; all pangs of hunger 

 had ceased; his appearance was wild; his hair was long and unkempt; his face 

 and hands were covered with sooty black dirt ; his body was scantily covered 

 with worn-out clothes; his form was wasted, his joints were swollen, and his 

 eyes were sunken. 



"His first inquiry was if they were not Englishmen, but when he was told 

 that we were his own countrymen, he paused for a moment as if reflecting, 

 then said, 'And I am glad to see you.' 



"The condition of his camp was in keeping with the scene- inside the tent, 

 desperate and desolate; the bleak barrenness of the spot, over which the wild 

 Arctic bird would not fly, the row of graves on a little ridge, one hundred 

 feet away, with the protruding heads and feet of those lately buried, a sad but 



