OcTonKn 19, 1SS3.] 



SCIENCE. 



543 



was named Iloiirietta Island. This was visited 

 bv Melville, with a small party, ten days later. 

 After great diHlciiUies, eaused liy the hum- 



*ND AS SEEN IN THE DISTANCE, JfLY 19. 



mock}' ice, the}- succeeded in landing upon it, 

 .ind found it to be a desolate rock, surmounted 

 by a snow-cap which discharged in several 

 glaciers on the east side. Dovekies nesting on 

 the face of the rock were the only sign of life 

 about it other than a little stunted vegetation. 

 But a great change was at hand. Motions and 

 fractures of the ice increased ; and the ship was 

 evidently in serious danger, which was accord- 

 ingly- provided for. On June 12, 1881, the 

 Jeannette yielded to the irresistible pressure, 

 and at four o'clock the next morning she sank. 

 The retreat was then organized and begun, 

 with several men on the sick-list in addition to 

 the usual dilliculties of- 

 fered by rough, broken, 

 and fissured ice. After 

 a little, l)e Long made 

 the painful discovery 

 that the ice was drifting 

 northward faster than 

 they were able to travel 

 in a southerly direction. 

 The course was therefore 

 altered to cross the drift 

 in a south-westerly di- 

 rection, in the hope of 

 escajiing from the mov- 

 ing area. About the 

 middle of July more land 

 was observed, and on 

 the 'iSth the party suc- 

 ceeded in landing upon 

 it after almost incredi- 

 ble exertions. This 



land, the loom of which had been reported 

 by Russian exjilorers on the New Siberian 

 Islands man}' years ago, but which had never 



been definitely verified or charted, was named 

 Bennett Island ; and we observe that in the 

 map accompanying the work, this and the 

 others arc veiy appro- 

 priately included under 

 the name of the De 

 Long Islands. Coal, 

 hematite, fossiliferous 

 limestone, clay, and 

 lavas were observed on 

 this island, and, more 

 imiiorlatit for the party, 

 myriads of sea- fowl 

 breeding in the rocky 

 cliffs. There were sev- 

 eral glaciers, and, to 

 one hundred feet above 

 the sea, masses of drift- 

 wood embedded in the 

 soil, indicating tolera- 

 bly recent elevation of the land. Hence by way 

 of the New Siberian Islands, touching at Thad- 

 deicff, Kotelnoi, Semeonoffski, the party made 

 their wa}-, but became separated in a gale of 

 wind on the 12th of September, after which the 

 smallest boat, with its crew, was never heard 

 from ; and finally the two remaining boats 

 reached the shores of the Lena delta. Uc Long 

 landed on the north Sept. 17, and Melville the 

 previous da}- reached the south-eastern angle, 

 and entered a branch of the river. It is not 

 necessary to recapitulate the circumstances 

 which attended the retreat, — the heroic jour- 

 ney of Nindeman and Noios, the indefatigable 



UMENT llll.l,, JENA DELTA. 



search of Jlelvillc, the final recover}- of the re- 

 mains, and their temporary intcrnicut on Mon- 

 ument Hill, looking out u|)on the flat stretches 



