THE FIRST SEARCH. 843 



could distinguish the groove which the sled had cut in 

 the soft slush a month before. In that wilderness 

 nothing had passed since to cover the track. 



Mr. Melville was in search now of the hut where 

 Ericksen had died. He was guided only by Ninde- 

 mann's account, and it was of course a matter of ex- 

 treme difficulty to determine a locality which was 

 marked clearly enough in the sailor's mind by the death 

 of his comrade, but had been only one of the various 

 stopping places in a fearful march tlnough snow and 

 over ice. As nearly as Mr. Melville could conjecture, 

 this hut was anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five 

 miles to the south of where the party had rested after 

 crossing the river, and the natives who were with 

 him guided him to a hut answering to that distance on 

 the west bank. It was not the place, however, for 

 which he was looking. They said there was another 

 on the east bank, a few miles farther south. He went 

 there also, but it was not the place, for Nindemann 

 had told him of the epitaph board which they had placed 

 over the door of the hut. 



He kept on to a hut called Sister Ganach, and there 

 spent the night. It was storming furiously. The snow 

 was very deep, and it w^as with difficulty that he could 

 persuade the natives to go on, but at length they suc- 

 ceeded in moving forward to a hut known as Qu Vina, 

 In both of these huts there was so much in the way of 

 remnants of reindeer meat that it seemed very clear that 

 Captain De Long and his party could not have passed 

 this way. Itw 7 as Saturday evening, the 19th of Novem- 

 ber, that Mr. Melville reached this point, and here he 

 was forced to stay through the storm until Monday, the 

 21st, when the weather was comparatively fine. From 

 this time until he rejoined his people at Buluu we will 

 give the narrative in his own words : — ' 



