94 NEW LAND. 



sunken cheeks, wild eyes, and matted hair and beard. Lieutenant 

 Colwell, the commander of the sloop, filled his pockets with bread 

 and pemmican, and with several others rushed up to Greely's tent. 



There they met a gruesome sight. Nearest to the door lay a 

 man who appeared to be dead, with sunken cheeks and open 

 staring eyes. On the opposite side lay another without hands or 

 feet, and with a spoon bound to the stump of his right arm. Two 

 of them had just taken down a rubber bottle from the tent- 

 pole, and were pouring the contents into a tin mug. Straight in 

 front of them, on his hands and knees, was a dark man with a long 

 matted beard, and eyes which shone with peculiar brilliancy. He 

 wore a dirty, ragged dressing-gown, and had a red skull-cap on 

 his head. When he saw Colwell, he raised himself a little, and 

 put on his eye-glasses. The former seized his hand, and asked him 

 if he was Greely. 'Yes/ he answered in a faint voice, broken 

 and hesitating, ' yes seven of us left here we are dying like 



men. Done what I came to do beat the best record ' and 



then fell back exhausted. 



It was a painful scene when Colwell gave them each a little 

 bread, and some pemmican in turn from the end of a knife. The 

 men could no longer stand, but had sunk on to their knees ; they 

 stretched out their hands and begged for more ; their rescuers, 

 however, were wise, and refused it. When Greely saw that they 

 were firm, he brought out a tin box containing a decoction of seal- 

 skin ; that he had a right to eat of, he said, for it was his own. 

 It was taken from him ; but while Colwell was raising the tent- 

 pole, which had fallen down, the men got hold of the half-finished 

 pemmican-box, and scraped it empty. 



They had been obliged to leave their house in May, when the 

 snow began to melt, as the water ran in through the roof; they 

 then took refuge in the tent. Fifty paces from the tent ten of the 

 dead men were buried. One, who had died only a few days 

 previously, lay unburied at the foot of the hill. The remains of 

 four had been laid near the shore, and the waves had washed them 

 away ; while the body of the soldier who had been shot lay on a 

 patch of snow near the tent. 



When the bodies were about to be prepared with alcohol, to 



