ch. xxxvi] The North-East Passage 329 
of biscuit and 32 souls to save from death. Their position 
was in 77 0 14' 57" N. and 154 0 58' E., far away from land. 
The boats were mounted and secured on sledges, and 
held ten men each, the first with De Long and Ambler, 
the second with Melville and Danenhower, and the third 
with Chipp and Dunbar. There were six tents. 
De Long made for the Liakhov or New Siberian 
Islands, but with much soft snow and dangerous openings 
in the ice their progress was slow. On July 29th land 
was discovered in 76 0 38' 17" N., the most northern of 
the New Siberian group, consisting of volcanic rock, with 
a vein of bituminous coal. It received the name of 
Bennett Island. All were then well, with 23 dogs, and 
30 days' provisions, but De Long himself was suffering 
much from the state of his feet. From the New Siberian 
Islands the three boats then started for the mouth of the 
Lena, De Long intending to lead his people to the first 
Russian settlement he could find. 
In crossing from the island to the Siberian coast the 
boats encountered a furious gale of wind and were 
separated. Chipp and his boat's crew were never heard 
of again. Melville and Danenhower, however, with their 
men, landed on one part of the Lena delta, and De Long 
on another. The latter in vain tried to find their way to 
a Russian settlement. Provisions failed, and all, save two, 
perished. Melville and Danenhower were more fortunate, 
reaching Yakutsk on the 30th December, 1881, and Melville 
at once organised a search for his lost commander. 
A relief expedition had meanwhile been fitted out at 
San Francisco, and in June 1881 the Rodgers sailed under 
the command of Lieutenant Berry, U.S.N. That intel- 
ligent officer made a complete survey and examination 
of the small Wrangell Island, in sight from Cape Chelag- 
skoi, about which Dr Petermann and others had written 
so inaccurately. He wintered in St Lawrence Bay, and 
then made his way to Yakutsk, to join Melville in the 
search. The bodies of De Long and Ambler were found 
close to each other on the island of Boren-Bjelkoi; they 
had died nobly, martyrs to science, and devoted to duty 
to the last. 
De Long was a naval officer of promise, and a noble 
character. He impressed me greatly with his thorough- 
