iv PREFACE. 



In preparing the closing chapters of the work, the 

 testimonies given by the survivors have been carefully 

 compared and made the basis for a consecutive narra- 

 tive which should complete the history of the expe- 

 dition. 



The illustrations have been studied with great care. 

 The smaller ones in the text have been reproduced 

 from diagrams and sketches made in the journals, by 

 Mr. Newcomb, the naturalist of the party, and by Cap- 

 tain Gronbeck of the Lena ; the larger ones have been 

 from the hand of Mr. M. J. Burns, whose experience 

 in the Arctic had given him special facility for making 

 truthful renderings, and his work has been carefully 

 examined and approved by officers of the expedition. 

 The portraits have been taken from the best sources. 

 That of Lieutenant-Commander De Long is from a 

 painting by Mr. E. W. Perry 5 that of Mr. Bennett was 

 engraved for this work ; and those of the officers and 

 other members of the expedition are from the best 

 photographs obtainable. The frontispiece of the sec- 

 ond volume is from a drawing made on the spot by 

 Mr. A. Larsen. The maps were drawn for the work, 

 with the exception of that descriptive of the route of 

 the Little Juniata, which is a reduction of the govern- 

 ment map in the '' Voyage of the Polaris.'* 



The scientific results of the expedition are only par- 

 tially recorded in the text of the work and in papers 

 included in the Appendix. The government will 

 hereafter issue the notes of the naturalist, the meteoro- 

 logical observations, and the electrical and auroral 



