GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



passed tolerably ; during that period Greely even tried to keep 

 up the spirits of his people by lecturing to them in the midst of 

 cold and hunger. Later on they lost strength for any attempt 

 at resistance, and one by one they were consumed by terrible 

 suffering. One of the Eskimos, Frederik, died as a result of 

 over-exertion during an unsuccessful hunting excursion ; the 

 other, Jens, was drowned in his kayak during an attempt to 

 work through thin ice in the endeavour to reach a shot seal ; 

 and as the expedition no longer had the services of these pro- 

 fessional hunters, everything seems to have gone slowly down- 

 hill. Even the energetic Lockwood, full of initiative, succumbed 

 to hunger, which slowly stole a march on him ; towards spring, 

 when the light returned and most of the men were unable to 

 walk, one might discover, after the catastrophe had taken 

 place, that one shared the sleeping-bag with a dead comrade. 

 At long last, on the 22nd of June, 1884, the ship arrived, but 

 then there were only six men alive out of the twenty-four. 



Greely himself finishes his report with the following pathetic 

 words : 



" Towards midnight of the 22nd, I heard the sound of the 

 steam-whistle of the Thetis, which, by the order of Captain 

 Schley, was to call his people together. My ear did not deceive 

 me, although I could hardly believe that, in the storm, a ship 

 would venture so near to land. 



"In a weak voice I asked Brainard and Long if they had 

 strength enough left to go out, and to this they replied as usual 

 that they would do their utmost. I requested them to return 

 and inform us if they sighted a ship. In the course of ten 

 minutes, Brainard returned from the ridge about 50 yards away, 

 and reported in a very subdued voice that nothing was to be 

 seen, and that Long had gone to hoist the flag of distress which 

 had blown down. Brainard again crept into his sleeping-bag 

 whilst we started an aimless discussion of the sound which we 

 had heard, during which Bierderbick maintained that the ship 

 must be lying in Payer Harbour — a statement in which I did 

 not believe, as I thought the whistle must have come from a 

 150 



