RESCUE OF THE GREELY EXPEDITION. 173 



to remain at St. Johns until there are twelve iron caskets constructed to receive 

 the bodies of the deceased explorers. The survivors are all doing well, but are 

 still weak and sufiFering from nervous prostration. Lieut. Greely has improved 

 from 1 20 pounds, his weight on the 22d of June, to 169 pounds. Sergeant 

 Brainard and others are pulling up proportionately. The weather^, here is 

 delightful, and all that could be desired for the sufferers, the mercury ranging be- 

 tween 65° and 75°. Great sympathy is evinced by all classes here, alike for the 

 survivors and the dead, and every token of respect is manifested for them. 



The Thetis and Bear as they ride quietly at anchor in the harbor of St. Johns 

 wear a somber and mounful appearance, with the flag of the United States at 

 half mast. The United States war ship Alert arrived here at 8 P. M. Her de- 

 tention was caused by fog and search for the other ships of the squadron. All 

 on board are well. 



Sergeant Julius R. Fredericks relates a mournfully tragic story of the sad death 

 on the ice covered ground of George Rice, the artist of the expedition. April 

 6th Rice and Fredericks volunteered to leave camp to proceed a distance of 

 twenty-five miles for some meat that was cached near Cape Isabella. They had 

 a sled, rifle and hatchet and provisions for five days. They traveled for three 

 days, but failed to find the cache. On their way to camp. Rice became weak 

 and finally gave up. He was attacked by bloody flux that gradually wore him 

 down. He succumbed and was interred in an ice grave by his companion. 

 Fredericks camped out that night under the fragment of a boat and next day 

 revisited his companion to pay his last tribute to his remains. Fredericks retained 

 sufficient strength to drag back the sled with the hatchet, rifle and cooking uten- 

 sils to the camp, where he encountered more woe in the form of the death of 

 Lieutenant Lockwood, another of the party. The cached meat that Fredericks 

 and Rice were in search of was brought by them April 6th, from Cape Isabella 

 and abandoned next day in order to drag Ellison, one of their party who had 

 been frozen, into camp. Rice was the life of the Greely party, full of hope, 

 buoyancy and energy, and his death was a terrible blow to them. He died in a 

 brave struggle to prolong their existence. 



Meager as the news is of the details of the rescue, the fearful mortality of 

 the little colony in its endeavors to escape from exile, tells a story of hardships 

 and suffering that needs no elaboration,. 



The party was rescued at Cape Sabine in latitude 79° and opposite Littleton 

 Island, near where the Proteus sank last year, en route to rescue the Greely 

 colony at Lady Franklin's Bay, in latitude 82°. The long journey over a track- 

 less waste of snow and ice, with great glaciers to traverse, between Lady Frank- 

 lin's Bay and Cape Sabine, must have been full of toil and suffering, with many 

 examples of heroic fortitude and endurance, for it is understood the whole party 

 reached Cape Sabine in safety. 



There the great sufferings began, for theborean blast of the polar region kept 

 the sea open, and being without boats Littleton Island could not be reached, where 

 provisions were cached the year previous by the ill-fated Proteus expedition. 



