214 RESCUE OF GREELY PARTY 



rescued by Commodore (afterward Rear Admiral) Winfield S. Schley on his 

 relief expedition sent out for the purpose of rescue. 



"Fluttering about the camp was a slip of paper that had been taken from 

 the flyleaf of a notebook. It was a voice from the dead. Written as the in- 

 troduction to a speech at a banquet that the expedition had evidently arranged 

 to kill the monotony of the long winter, the words were in the nature of a 

 chaffing of the various members of the party. The author little knew at the 

 time that he penciled his words that they would be found almost a generation 

 afterward, the simple story of a tragedy of the Arctic. 



"Here I also found other papers and magazines. Carefully placed between 

 the pages of a magazine were several photographic plates that had been taken 

 by George W. Rice, who was the official photographer of the expedition. The 

 magazine was still readable, despite the fact that it had been the plaything of 

 the elements there for twenty-eight years. The plates, however, were ruined, 

 and I was unable to discover to just what extent the expedition had penetrated 

 into the Arctic. 



"One of the treasures concealed by the leaves of the magazine was a photo- 

 graph of General Greely. The features were still distinct. One of the reHcs 

 was the fly leaf of a book. It had written upon it: 'Lieutenant Frederick 

 Kisslingbury. To my dear father, from his affectionate son, Harry Kissling- 

 bury. May God be with you and return you safely to us.' 



"The fly leaf had been torn from a textbook that had evidently been passed 

 from one student to another. The names of several persons, evidently students, 

 had been written, but a pencil mark had been drawn through them. The first 

 name at the top of the page was Henry Satreau. Underneath was Victor 

 Cloutier, Assumption College. These had been scratched out and under them 

 written 'Harry Kisslingbury, Fort Custer, Mont., now at Assumption College, 

 Sandwich, Ontario, Jan. 15, 1881.' 



"The fate of Kisslingbury is tragic. He had become estranged from General 

 Greely at Fort Conger and resigned his position in the army. He ran for 

 the shore to board the Proteus, intending to return to America, but just as he 

 reached there he saw the smoke of the steamer in the distance. He had arri\^ed 

 too late. 



"Kisslingbury returned to camp, did not ask for reinstatement, and lived 

 with the expedition as a private citizen. He was among those who perished 

 later. 



"Another of Kisslingbury's possessions -which I found was a temperance 

 hymn book on the fly leaf of which was written : To Lieutenant Kisslingbury, 



