46* GRBBLT RELIEF EXPEDITION. 



He had lain for weeks in his sleeping-bag, on account of gradually 

 failing strength ; was unable to stand alone, and was almost helpless, 

 except in a sitting posture ; all pain of hunger had ceased ; his ap- 

 pearance was wild ; his hair was long and matted ; his face and 

 hands were covered with sooty, thick dirt ; his form had wasted al- 

 most to a skeleton ; his feet and joints were swollen ; his eyes were 

 sunken, and his body scantily covered with dirty and almost worn- 

 out garments, which had not been changed for six or eight months. 



Private Connell's condition when found was desperate and critical. 

 He was speechless and was breathing with difficulty. He was cold 

 almost to his waist. His eyes were fixed and glassy in appearance. 

 Stimulants were administered by the surgeons after their arrival with 

 considerable difficulty, although Colwell had ventured to anticipate 

 them on account of his extreme condition. His heart was pulsating 

 irregularly; his temperature was quite low, while his face was swollen 

 beyond recognition. From his eyes and the corners of his mouth 

 offensive humor was emitting. He was virtually saved from the jaws 

 of death. 



Poor Sergeant Elison was found in his sleeping-bag, in which he 

 had lain helpless for months, with his hands and feet frozen and 

 sloughing away. His comrades had secured a spoon to the stump of 

 his right hand that he might feed himself. Otherwise he was in 

 better condition than most of the party, from the fact that his com- 

 panions had doled out to him from their scant aUowance of food during 

 the latter period of greatest distress on account of his complete help- 

 lessness to add anything to his pittance by hunting about the rocks 

 for lichens, or by catching shrimps. He suffered less waste of strength 

 than the others, and if the rescue had been delayed another forty 

 hours he would in all likelihood have been the only one left to tell 

 us the tale. 



This case of Elison, under the most desperate circumstances, im- 

 pressed me as worthy of brave and generous men who had been found 

 suffering and dying together. 



Sergeants Brainard and Fredericks and Hospital Steward Bierder- 

 bick were all extremely weak and unable to stand without assistance 

 for any length of time. Such was their condition that they no longer 

 dared venture away from the immediate vicinity of the camp to seek 

 food, nor tj' collect lichens or catch shrimps upon which they had to 

 depend to a great extent to sustain their lives. Like Greely, they 

 were swollen, and beyond recognition. They were covered with 

 sooty dirt; had not changed their worn-out clothes nor washed for 

 eight months. 



Sergeant Long's office of hunter for the starving party had made 

 it necessary to increase his allowance somewhat over that of the 

 others to maintain his strength that he might continue to the last his 

 battle for food and life to the other helpless ones. Yet, in his case, 



