GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



333 



the island, except the boat-sleds, which were 

 necessary for the portages across the floes. 

 They made sometimes ten miles a day in the 

 boats, working between the floes, except when 

 they had to haul their boats across. They 

 were kept back ten days by the jamming of 

 the ice, drifting on the pack along the north 

 coast of Thaddeus Island. They landed on the 

 south shore of this island, which they found to 

 be composed of mud-hills, which were wearing 

 away rapidly, with mossy tundra in the in- 

 terior. They sailed southward over the shoals 

 between Thaddeus and Kaltenoi Islands. On 

 the latter, which is the largest of the New- 

 Siberian group, and lies northeast of the Lena 

 mouth, they encamped on September 6th, and 

 on Semmoffsky Island on the 10th, where they 

 ate venison after many days of short rations. 

 When they set out on the 12th, and 

 were ranging along the coast, the 

 wind blew up a gale. The first cut- 

 ter, twenty feet four inches in length, 

 and drawing twenty-eight inches, 

 contained Captain De Long, Dr. 

 Ambler, Mr. Collins, the meteorol- 

 ogist, Ninderman, Erickson, Gurtz, 

 Noros, Dressier, Iverson, Kaach, 

 Boyd, Machinist Lee, Ah Sara, and 

 the Indian Alexei. The second cut- 

 ter, sixteen feet three inches long, '>; 

 was hardly seaworthy. It contained 

 First -Lieutenant Chipp, Ice -Pilot -' ^ 

 D unbar, Carpenter Sweetman, 

 Staar, Warren, Kuehne, Johnsen, 

 and Sharwell. The whale-boat was 

 twenty-five feet four inches long 

 and stanchly built. Lieutenant Dan- 

 enhower being disabled by ophthal- 

 mia, Engineer Melville took com- 

 mand. Besides these two it con- 

 tained Boatswain Cole, Dr. New- 

 comb, the naturalist, Leach, Man- 

 sen, Wilson, Bartlett, Lauterbach, 

 Steward, and the Indian Anequin. 

 In the gale the boats became sepa- 

 rated. Lieutenant Chipp's boat was 

 lost. None of the party has been seen or 

 heard from. The whale - boat reached one 

 of the eastern mouths of the Lena delta on 

 the 17th of September, 1881. The boats 

 were within sixty miles of land when driven 

 apart by the gale. The whale-boat sailed up 

 the branch of the river to the Lena proper. 

 Here three native fishermen were encountered. 

 The Tungus took them out of the way to their 

 village on Cape Bikoffsky. They saw there 

 the chief and a Russian convict. These two 

 were sent to the station of Bulun with dis- 

 patches. The Yakoot natives were not will- 

 ing to guide the party to Bulun, as it was too 

 late for navigation and too early for sledding. 

 While they were waiting, Lieutenant Danen- 

 hower made an ineffectual search on the Lena 

 delta for the missing boat-crews. The mes- 

 senger was absent thirteen days. On his way 

 back he fell in with two men from the cap- 



tain's party who had been sent in search of 

 assistance. Melville hastened forward to see 

 these men, Ninderman and Noros, and to start 

 out to find the captain and his party. After a 

 short time he joined his party at Yakutsk, 

 where he remained with Ninderman and Bart- 

 lett to make a thorough search in the spring, 

 while Danenhower with the rest of the crew 

 made his way homeward. Melville in his first 

 search came to some of the huts where De Long 

 had staid, and certain of the records were 

 brought to him by natives; but he lost the 

 track and gave up the search, being disabled 

 from the effects of freezing in the whale-boat, 

 and unable to induce the Tungus to carry him 

 farther with their dog-teams ; while it was al- 

 ready too late to succor the captain's party if 

 they had not found other relief. 



LIEUTENANT JOHN WILSON DANENHOWER, U. 8. N. 



While the whale-boat was driven by the gale 

 of the night of September 12th far to the east- 

 ward, De Long sailed in a westerly direction 

 along the shore, and made one of the western 

 mouths of the Lena on the 16th. After trying 

 for two days to make a landing in the boat, 

 they left her on the shoals, and waded ashore 

 with the arms, records, and provisions. They 

 had only four days' rations on reduced allow- 

 ance. On the 19th they set out for the south, 

 leaving the log-books, ship's instruments, etc., 

 at the beach. Three of the party were dis- 

 abled by frost-bites, so that it took two days to 

 march twelve miles. Here they found two huts 

 in which they remained until the 24th, waiting 

 for the disabled to recover from their lameness. 

 Two reindeer were shot here. They reached 

 another hut on the 28th, where they waited 

 until the 1st of October for the river to freeze 

 over. They found more game, but when they 



