THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 761 



consumed, the most extraordinary good luck befel them ; a herd 

 of reindeer was sighted and three large bucks killed. This saved 

 the party from starvation, by giving them food sufficient for 

 three days longer. 



Thus they marched until October 6th, when Ericksen, whose 

 feet had been amputated two days before, died, and was buried 

 in the Lena river, the ground being so hard frozen that di" r <nn i 



* ' O v? C 



a grave was impossible. Here, too, the party were in great dan- 

 ger from starvation again, as the only food now left was a few 

 pounds of their last dog, which had been killed the day before. 



The record from October 10th is a ghastly one, which excites 

 the deepest compassion. In the absence of food DeLong served 

 out half an ounce of alcohol or glycerine to each man. Alexey, 

 who had been their main dependence, as it was he who had done 

 the hunting, succumbed from exhaustion and starvation on the 

 17th, followed three days later by Kaack and Lee, who died 

 from the same cause. Prayers were read over their bodies, but 

 the remainder of the party were too weak to give them any kind 

 of burial. Iversen died on the 28th, Dressier on the 29th, and 

 Boyd, Gortz, and Collins on the 30th. At this point DeLong 

 became so feeble that he could no longer keep his journal. The 

 rest of this painful story can only be surmised by the subsequent 

 discovery of the Lieutenant's body lying beneath the snow in the 

 midst of his forever mute comrades. 



Xindemann and Noros, in trying to obtain relief, in obedience 

 to their commander, went out upon a march over a trackless and 

 desolate region, to encounter hardships fully as great as those 

 under which DeLong and the men who remained with him suc- 

 cumbed. Having no food with them on departing, they had to 

 take the chances of finding it on the way. But day after day 

 followed without either of them seeing any game, and to stay 

 the gnawing pangs of hunger they had to subsist on tea made of 

 the Arctic willow, and pieces of their seal-skin clothes. This 

 diet, dreadfully unpalatable, brought on dysentery, which so ex- 

 hausted them that they abandoned all hope and felt that death 

 was near. They left DeLong October 9th, and so floandered 



