Omaha daily bee., 1882-12-30
The Hardships Of the Grew in
Perpetual Winter Graph
ically Describes.
Arctic Storms, Terrible Suffer
ing, Disappointment aud
Finally Death.
Senator Logan Bsllows Loud and
Long Against the Relief
of Porter.
The History OF the Crime Unchanged
by Time, According to
Black Jack.
CAPITAL NOTES.
Special Dispatches to THE BEE.

CAPITAL NOTES.
Special Dispatches to THE BEE.
belongs COR OF THE EXPEDITION.
WASHINGTON, December 29.--De
Longs report which was found beside
his dead body has been made public.
1t makes thirty thousand words in the
details and incidents of the cruise
from the departure from San Fran.
cisco, 1879 to 1881. Its principal
features is the elaborate account OF
Belongs views with regard to tho ex.
petition. He considered it good
Judgment to head for Wrangell Land.
His idea was to adopt the land as a
support for the first winters cam.
paign. He embodies a story of how
land was sighted and how he expected
to reach it, and graphically des.
cribss how on the next day the
J%esnnettee became beset In ice never
again to be relieved and says, ''the
party was compelled to make q virtue
OF necessity and stay whs-e we were."
Sometimes ali night aud sometimes
day and night, from January 10 to
February A., Sweetmsn ana Nluder-
man stood down in the forepeak, icy
water flo wing around them, ne rly to
their knees, working faithfully until
their work was accomplished, and the
good results of that work were eyi.
dent in the gradually reduced amount
of water coming into the ship and
hi ability to control the leak without
such rulnous expenditureof fuel as had
been necessary heretofore. 1t is for
these reasons that / have had the
honor to recommend these two men to
you for medals of honor, as a recogni-
tion of heroic conduct under the most
trying circumstances.
Captain Belongs record of the re-.
mAinder of the winter and summer of
1880 is for the most part q monoton.
q record of storms, ice movements,
constant anxiety and almost unbroken
disappointment. AS the short Arctic
summer drew to a close without setting
the Jeanette free and another dreary
winter approached, Captain DsLong
egi:',uf,y bagan 70 revolva in his mind
tho question whether it would not be
better to abandon the ship and make
for the northern coast of Siberia over
the ice, than run the risk of q second
winter in the pack. Under date of
September goth, 1880, he says: 81
dislike to materially dwell on the idea
of abandonment of the ship. We have
come through SO much 1t gives me
hopes of surviving more. As long as
enough of the ship remains to shelter
us, sticking by that fragment is pre-
fsrable to camping on ice, and I can
conceive of greater forlorn hope than
the attempt to reach Siberia (say 240
miles distant) over the ice that sur.
rounds US, and with winters cold
sapping ones life at every step. Of
course, if we were to lose u ship,
we would make the effort to get there,
but our chances of SUCCESS would be
extremely problamatical.
The last entry In the record is
dated December 31st, 1880, and Is as
follows: "Minstrels and ringing in
the new year in latitude 70 degrees,
48 minutes north, longitude LIZ de-
grees, 80 minutes east. Daring the
past sixteen months we have drifted
1900 miles, far enough, If it had been
in a straight line, to carry us to and
beyond the pole, but we are yet only
900 miles northwest from whore we
were first beset. We have suffered
injury, and danger has often confron.
ted US. We have been squeezed and
iammed, tossed and tumbled. We
nave pumped the leaking ship for a
year, bat we are not yet daunted, and
are as ready to dare everything as We
ever were, and We face the new year
firmly, hoping to do something worthy
of ourselves, of Benefits enterprise
and of the flag above u.s."
In ltsJ than ten months after these
words were written the Jeanette was
at the bottom of the Arctic ocean, and
belong lay dead in the Lena delta.
THE TARIFF.
The ways aud means committee de-
voted the entire session to-day to con-
alteration of the tariff commissions
schedule on wool and woolens, less
than half of which was completed.
None but verbal changes were made
except in the Item of wooden rags,
shoddy and focks, on which the rate
was changed from IL to 10 cents per
pound.
Mr.. Hayes, tariff commissioner, to-
day expressed himself confident that
the tariff will be revised this session
on the plan recommended by the com
mission and modified by the commit
tee OF ,ways and means, He thinks
the committee will report in two
weeks.