EXPEDITION TO POINT BARROW. ALASKA. 25 



Uitterlly thai appears at this season. The buttertly appears as the popp\ lades, and tlie\ believe 

 that the poppy is transformed, takes wings, and (lies awa\. 



On the afternoon of tlie '2~>ih of June a vessel hove in sight in the southwest. She appeared 

 to be in the solid pack, as tin-re was no water in sight, lint we soon discovered she was working 

 her way along a narrow lead, about six miles from shore, which was not visible to us. At about 8 

 o'clock that night she was bearing about west true from the station, when she came to a halt; I 

 at once dispatched interpreter llerendeen off to her. He returned the next da}' at 11 a. in., and 

 reported that it was the, steam-whaler North Star. Captain Uweiii. on her first voyage from New 

 Bedford. He brought a few letters and a tile of New York papers, giving us news from the outer 

 world. It was the tirst information we, had of the death of President <larlield and loss of the, 

 Rogers. On the L'Tth I went out to her; found her fast in the ice. with no sign of open water in 

 sight from her mast-head. Captain Owen reported she had suffered a severe nip the night beforej 

 and she was raised up bodily about four feet while I was on board of her. 1 visited her auain on 

 the 4th of .Inly and she was still uninjured. During the night of the tith the wind hauled around 

 to the eastward, causing the pressure to slacken up. and several large cracks opened in the ice. 

 one of them in close proximity to the ice-bound ship. Early on the morning of the 7th we saw 

 she was afloat and working through the broken ice toward shore: when about two and a half 

 miles from the station she again became fast, and lay there all night. The following da\ .Inly 8) 

 the pressure again slacked and a lead opened along shore past where she was laying: she got 

 nudcr way and steamed slowly along the lead to the sour Invest. After proceeding a couple of miles 

 Khe again became fast: the ice closing in from the. west, she was now caught between the ground 

 and the great pack which was setting bodily to the northeast. She remained immovable Inmi about 

 noon until 1 p. in., when our attention was suddenly attracted to her by a great outcry raised by 

 her crew, and we could distinctly hear the cracking of her timbers as her sides were crushed in by 

 the ice; her masts fell a few moments after, and her crew escaped to the ground-ice. I at once set 

 off to their assistance with what men could be spared from the .station ; we found they had saved 

 nothing but their clothing, a cask of bread, and three boats; the lew remaining fragments of the 

 wreck were fast disappearing in the distance, being carried away by the moving pack. The crew- 

 all safely reached the land that night, being ferried acros> the open leads b\ the boats from the 

 station; tents were pitched to shelter them, and every care given to their comfort. Captain 

 Owen subsequently went out with his crew and brought in the bread, and boats to be used in 

 moving to the southward along the shore-lead, in the event that no other vessel should be aide to 

 reach the station. On ,Iu!y II other ships fortunately hove in sight, and the wrecked people 

 were, distributed through the Meet, between that time and August 1', the last going on board the 

 bark Thomas Pope, bound for San Francisco. Different vessels of the Meet leinained in sight ot 

 the station off and on until September '2:'>. the steamer Uowhead being the last to visit the station. 

 We sent by her our last mail to the I'nited States. 



On August '1 a small schooner was seen coming around the point to the north and east, which 

 proved to be the relief vessel Leo, Lieutenant Powell in charge. She had been carried out of her 

 course to the northeast by the current, in a thick fog: her master, being ignorant of the dair_- 

 attending navigation along this shore, having allowed her to drift into a position where, but for the 

 providential springing up of a light breex.e, she would certainly have been lost, l.y her we received 

 three additional observers, Sergt. .1. E. Maxlield and Privates Charlo Ancor. and .lohn (lu/.mau. ot 

 the Signal Corps. K. S. Army: a year's additional supply of [provisions and coal: also the new mag- 

 netic instruments. With the help of the natives, she was discharged on the Ulith. and sailed the 

 following day. 1 relieved and sent back by her Sergt. -lames Cassidy. Signal Corps. I". S. Army. 



The new magnetic observatory was at once put up and the instruments mounted upon perma- 

 nent brick piers, and observations with them commenced September \'l. 



Xow that the ships were gone and all connection se\ered with the outside world, we had 

 nothing to break the old routine of our duty at the station but the occasional visit of a native from 

 Koine distant village. The faces of t hose living at Nnwnk and I'-laainiehad become as familiar to us 

 as those of o;ir own people: they had ceased to be intrusive, but visited us almost daily with some 

 curio or game for barter: and as the season advanced ami water became scarce we were daily 

 besieged by the seal hunters coming in from the sea and begging for a drink of Mater, of which 

 j|. Ex. 44 4 



