620 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



"Lieutenant Greely was physically the weakest, but mentally 

 the most vigorous of his party. He had lain in hfs sleeping bag 

 for weeks on account of his gradually failing strength. He was 

 unable to stand alone for any length of time, and was almost 

 helpless except in a sitting posture ; all pangs of hunger had 

 ceased ; his appearance was wild ; his hair was long and unkempt ; 

 his face and hands were covered with sooty black dirt ; his body 

 was scantily covered with worn out clothes ; his form was wasted, 

 his joints were swollen, and his eyes were sunken. 



" His first inquiry was if they were not Englishmen, but when 

 he was told that we were his own countrymen, he paused for a 

 moment as if reflecting, then said, ' And I am glad to see you.' 



" The condition of his camp was in keeping with the scene 

 inside the tent, desperate and desolate ; the bleak barrenness of 

 the spot, over which the wild Arctic bird would not fly, the row 

 of graves on a little ridge, one hundred feet away, with the pro- 

 truding heads and feet of those lately buried, a sad but silent 

 witness to the daily increasing weakness of the little band of sur- 

 vivors ; the deserted winter quarters in the hollow below, with 

 its broken wall invaded by the water from the melting snow and 

 ice above it ; the dead bodies of two companions stretched on the 

 ice foot that remained ; the wretched apology for cooking uten- 

 sils improvised by them in their sore distress, hardly deserving the 

 name ; the scattered and worn out clothes and sleeping bags of 

 the dead ; the absence of all food save a few cupfuls of boiled 

 seal-skin scraps; the wild and weird scene of snow, ice and 

 glaciers overlooking and overhanging this desolate camp, com- 

 pleted a picture as startling as it was impressive. I hope never 

 again in my life to look upon such wretchedness and such desti- 

 tution. The picture was more startling and more deeply pathetic 

 than I had ever dreamed could be possible. In beholding it I 

 stood for a moment almost unmanned, and then realized that if 

 the expedition had demonstrated any one thing more than 

 another it was that an hour had its value to at least one of that 

 party. Stouter hearts than mine felt full of sorrow. Eyes that 

 had not wept for years were moistened with tears in the solemnity 



