The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1905-08-17
islands and landed there.

Tho
ISLANDS and landed there,
| Capt. belong made apothar arro,
IN MS action at this time. for time wa,
valuable as young ice was beginning r.
FORM nights where there was anv oner
water, and yet we remained On those hose
ISLANDS for week. We killed large
number of gulls to exc out our food
supply, but many of the men were
made sick by eating the birds.
again we took up our tourney and
landed on another island, the one near.
est to the coast of Siberia. There we
saw deer tracks and at once organized
a hunt. We found doe and a fawn
and we killed the doe. Here we camn
and rest. 0oo' 'n0"'
AFTER leaving that island, we found
open water and launched our boats
Capt. belong had the first cutter with
IA men. Lieut.. Chip had the second
cutter with eight men, and Engineer
Melville was given charge of the whale.
boat with II men, of whom | was one.
Then we came to ice again and had ia
portage over it until open water greet.
ed us once more.
we mad been a number of DAYS in
the boats when a gale came up. The
captain gave orders to keep together.
The gale became furious, and as orr
boat was faster than the other we
would have to slack our sail to hang
back for the rest. This allowed the
waves to run over us, and we were in
danger of laundering from the water
which came aboard.
FEET BADLY FROZEN.
"When we got chance we hailed the
captain and told him our trouble and
he gave us permission to 60 on without
waiting for our consorts. In the night
we lost sight of the others.
'It happened that was the only man
in our boat whom Melville would allow
to steer during such trying weather,
and for 10 hours l sat at the tiller.
My feet were badly frozen and even
my legs and feet were frostbitten.
couldn't move when they told me l was
relieved at my post.
by that time the gale had subsidized
and the sea was going down. For three
or four days before we sighted land we
were constantly running aground in
the shoal water of the Siberian coast.
We worked about TRYING to find some
sort of channel leading to the river,
and at length we did find one to the
southeast of the delta, away down in
the blight
THE land near the mouth of the
river is very low-all sand spits, in fact,
and we couldn't see it until we were
within very few miles. We ran into
the mouth Of the river and landed on
the riQhthand bank,
1.-The captains boat encountered just
the same conditions we did, and when
they ran ashore on one of the shOal
spots and saw a little land ahead of
them, they abandoned their boat and
carried all their stores ashore. Then
they found they were on an island and
their boat had floated away. They were
compelled to remain there until the
water froze over. l never could under
stand how they came to abandon their
boat until they were sure of their posi-
ton.
"They did have a meager supply of
food, but our boats crew had none
when we landed. In fact for four days
before we landed we had been on a
four-ounce allowance per day.
'The second CUTTER with Lieut.. Chip
and his party, foundered during the
gale l spoke Of. The boat was small
and light and unfit to stand up to the
sea that was running that night. If we
had only had the second whaleboat they
would probably have come through all
right.
E.At the time we left the mouth of
the river of course we did not know the
fate of the captain and his party. We
expected by going up the river to find a
native village. That is where we were
disappointed, for our two-weeks stay
on those islands of the New Siberian
group had detained us just long enough
to miss the natives who had been at
the mouth of the river fishing. They
had all returned up to the river to thei1
villages.
"For three days we kept ascending
the river as best we could against the
strong current. At night we landed and
camped. On the third day at noon we
! landed on an island to take our CON-
pass bearings, and while doing that we
saw three canoes padding down stream.
"Without hesitation we rushed back
to our boat and got into the middle of
| the river so as to intercept the natives.
They were shy of us and kept at dis
rance, but at length we lay on our oars
dl1u SlSudl6u Gildu WC N0lC llullS
They seemed to understand and one
of the young fellows came alongside
our boat. Then we landed for a ''pala-
yer" and they gave us wild goose, "a
| large fish Of some sort and piece of
reindeer meat We put all three to-
gether in our kettle and boiled them.
| We had no salt nor vegetables of any
kind-just that boiled concoction-but
| it was like mama to our starving men,
Having finished our meal, we made
signs to the natives that we desired to
go up the river, and they made signs
that they we're willing to go back and
pilot u.s. Under their guidance We
worked up river all day, and at night
| camped at native hut. While we were
arranging our beds the Indians went
out and caught some fish for us, so we
had good supper, too, and it put new
life into US.
Next morning the natives declined
to go with US. They made some signs
which we couldn't understand, except
that they we're not going with us. AT
terward we learned they had friend
still in the locality and wanted to get
him before proceeding further with us
We couldn't understand what they
meant, however, and so we set gu!
without them.
''All that day we had an awful time
There were SO many twists and turns tc
| that river that we made almost nc