The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-07-25

were, and horrible sight met our eyes
Lieutenant Greedy, Brainard, Fredericks,
Long, Beirderback and Connel1 were crying
like children and hugging each other franti-
cally. They seemed frantic with joy. / put
off in cutter, and after great difficulty
reached them. They flew at me, and | at
first imagined they were crazy. They seized
each of the men in the boat, Rugged them,
kissed their hands and did every thing one
could imagine to show their joy and gratitude.
All but poor Ellison. His feet and hands
were so badly frozen that he could not move
He lay still on the ground and moaned.
The others of the party, also, were more or
less frost bitten, but they seemed to forget
their suiferings.
The party on the ice looked as IL they could
not live five hours, they looked 50 feeble, not
outstanding the almost superhuman strength
they had shown when we reached them. Slow
ly, one by one, seventeen of the party had
yielded up their lives to the demon Starvation.
One of them, the strongest, had gone seal
hunting, He never returned He was
drowned while trying to get to a seal before ID
reached the edge of foe upon which they
were. He missed his footing, fell into seam
in the ice and was seen no more.
We encountered a gale day before yester-
day which was so furious that the Alert
separated from us in it. Greelv in his report
to me, said that on August 8, 1888, he aban.
doned Fort Conger They Travelled northerly,
and, after considerable privation and suffer
ing from the cold, reached Baird Inlet on
September 90. There was no one in the party
who was not in full possession of health, and,
excepting their isolated position, everything
was well.
GrecIy's Terrible Experience.
General Hazen of the signal service at
Washington received the following telegram
from Lieutenant Greedy at st. Johns
"Brainard, Beirlerback, Council, Freder-
icks Long. myself, sole survivors, arrived
here TO day, having been rescued at the point
of death from starvation by relief ships The
It's and Bear June % at Camp Clay, northwest
of Cape Sabine All are now in good health,
but weak. / abandoned Fort Conger August
9. and was frozen in the pack off Victoria
Head August 20; abandoned steam launch
September II, eleven miles north
east of Cooked Hat island When on the
point of landing we were three times driven
southwest by storms into Kane's sea. Finally
arrived September 20 in Baird inlet. Learn
ing by scouting parties of the Proteus disas-
ter, and that no provisions had been left for
us from Cape Isabella to Sabine, l moved
and established winter quarters at Camp
Clay, half way between Sabine and Cooked
Hat. Inventory showed that by daily ration,
bread and dog biscuits and four ounces OF
miscellaneous the party would have ten days
full rations left for crossing Smith Sound to
Littleton island up to March 1.
Unfortunately Smith Sound remained
open the entire winter, rendering crossing inn
from early February. Before the sun re-
turned only 800 pounds of meat could be OBJ
tanned. During this year minute shrimps
seaweed, sassafras, rock lichens and sealskir
were resorted to for food, with results as
shown in the number of survivors. The last
regular food was issued May a. Only 15C
pounds of meat having been left by CARING
] COmnpllpI November