The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-12-20

WHAT MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION SAY IN
ANSWER TO NEUMANN's sTATEMENT--wIIY
THE DOGS WERE KILLED.

WHAT MkNDERS Of TIE LAPfDliioS SAL IN
ANSWER TO NEuMANN's SUPPLEMENTARY
TUE DOGS WERE KILLED.
Professor NewcOmb, the naturalist Of
the Jeanette expedition. was asked by Il
reporter Monday what he thought OF the
statement OF Russian officer, telegraphed
from san Francisco Sunday night, to the
effect that the death OF Captain De Long
and his party was due to the killing OF the
dogs, and 70 their neglect to carry fowling
pieces. He replied: Il do not care TO
crlticise 1t length the article, but in
some details it II incorrect. Mr.. Rudolph
Neumann, not Captain Nerbaum, was the
agent OF the f,lr company at st. AlichaePs
when the Jeanette party was there. When
the dogs were disposed Of il was ques-
ton OF stowsge-room and provisions for
either men or dogs. Naturally the men
were first considered. AS TO the firearms,
would say that besides Remington and
Winchester rifles, each officer, excepting
myself, had Remington breech-loading
Shot-guns, some Of them fitted with aux
Hilary rihe-barrels. Besides these. Mr..
Chip had 4 Parker shotgun, Mr.. Melville
a gun Of his own, and / had mine, with
which more than once shot birds enough
for the whole ships company. The other
items Of the article referred 10 | have no.
thing to say about"
NCros, one OF the other survivors, upon
beng questioned with regard to the kill
ing OF the dogs. said: 1--WE were very
much attached to the dogs and hated to
lose them. but IL was n simple question
whether we should attempt 10 save the
dogs or the men. There were on board the
ship forty-two dogs. six or eight OF them
died on the ship. When Bennett Island
was reached we took to the boats, and
there the question Of carrying the dogs
arose. We couldn't do 1t; there was no
vo,n Gov thom oil, 90 we seleofad
ten OF the best, and the rest were
killed. The ten saved were distributed in
the three boats, but we couldn't keep them
there. Whenever q boat would come near
enough to cake OF ice, and sometimes we
were in narrow lead the boat touching
the ice on both sides, the dogs would see
their chance and would Jump on the ice
and drift of. We hated to see them go,
and would try to coax them back, but it
was no use, and we couldn't spare yalua-
bic time TO run after them continually.
You must remember that ut Bennett Island
we had provisions for forty days, and eX-
Dcctcu 40 get usslhtlnCc ~ sOOH 10 We
could get to shore. AS for guns,
we had all the shot-guns we wanted.
Professor Newcomb carried his own shot
gun, and occasionally few ducks were shot
before land was reached. But what good
would few ducks do among fourteen
men! BY hunting for duck-pond we
might have killed hundred or more
ducks, but. you know, we had no time TO
spare, for we wanted TO get to land, where
we were sure OF obtaining assistance. We
preferred 10 carry rifles, for we wanted
big game that would do some good-bears.
1t is easy enough" he said, "to criticisc
now, and DE Long would probably have
done differently in some cases II he could
have ioreseen the difficulties"
Chies-Engineer Melville, upon being
question, said: ~ don't care TO talk, be-
cause you can't handle pitch without soil
| ing your hands, but that man is talking OF
something he Doesn't know anything about.
He is talking about country he was never
in. and Of 4 land about which he knows
nothing"