The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1882-06-29
The FAtA of De Long.

-, The New York Herald correspondent with
the Rodgers search expedition sends the fol-
lowing dispatch, dated Lena Delta:
" Melville found the bodies Of De Longs
party On March 90. They were in two places,
500 and 1000 yards from the wreck of the
scow. Melvile's search party first started
from the supply depot there two words
are unintelligihle] TO follow Nnderman's
route from UsterdG to Mot Val, and afterward
from Mot Val back toward Usterda. 1.-THE fol-
lowing sentence is again unintelligible.] They
stopped at the place which Ninderman and
Noras passed the first day after they left De
Long, feeling sure that the others had not got
much further. There they found the wreck,
and fol llnwinS along the bank they came upon
rifle barrel hung upon four sticks there six
words are unintelligibe.
They set the natives digging on each side
OF the sticks, and they coon came upon two
bodies under eight feet of snow. While these
men were digging toward the east Melville
went on along the bank, twenty feet above the
river, TO find place to take bearings. He then
saw camp kettle and the remains of q fire
about ] 1000 yards from the tent and approach
ing nearly stumbled upon De Longs hand
sticking cut of the snow about thirty feet from
the edge eff the bank. Here, under about
u foot Of snow, they found the bodies of De
Long and Amber about three feet apart, and
All Sam lying at their feet, all partially covered
by pieces of tent and few pieces of blanket.
All the others except Alexia they found at the
place where the tent was pitched. Lee and
Koch were close by in cleft in the bank
toward the west. Two boxes Of records, with
the medicine chest and flag on staff, were
beside the tent
"None of the dead had boots. Their feet
we're covered with rags tied on. In the pock-
cts OF ali were pieces of burnt skin and of the
clothing which they had been eating. The
hands of all were more or less burned and it
looked as if when dying they had crawled into
nEn l.-tV, l.. Al~Al,
ing being burned through to the skin, which
was not burned. Collins face was covered
with cloth.
IAN the bodies were carried to the top Of
hill 800 feet high, about forty versts to the
southwest from where they were found, and
there inferred in mausoleum constructed of
wood from the scow, built in the form of
pyramid twenty-five feet long and seven high,
surmounted by cross twenty-five feet high
and a foot square, hewn out of driftwood and
conspicuous at distance of twenty versts.
The mausoleum was covered with stone sand is
to be sodded in tho spring. The cross is in
scribed with the record and names OF the dead,
cut in by the search party.
after completing the tomb the party sepa-
rated to search the delta for traces of Chipp's
people. Melville went to the northwest part of
the delta and west as far as the Olenek river;
Ninderman took the center and Bartlett the
northeast. Ninderman and Bartlett found
nothing. Melville has not yet returned. The
search is to be extended to Cape Borchaya and
the.bay of that name. They expect to finish in
time to reach Yakutsk or Verkhoansk
before the rivers break up. If they do not
finish before that time they will have to re-
treat to the foot of the hills and mountains
with the natives until the water falls, as the
whole of the delta is covered with water in
spring to height of four feet and in some places
to twenty feet above the level of the river.
Otherwise they would have buried the dead
where they found them"