The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1909-10-13
for the Farthest North

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on, and It is very uncertain how far
he advanced northward on the other
side. He returned to Boston on Oc-
tober 23, 1861.
With the Inflated Jeanette expe-
dition began a series of Arctic trag-
edies. This vessel, which had been
fitted out in 1879 with the intention
of making an effort to locate the
North Pole, was under the command
of Lieutenant De Long, of the United
States Navy. Less than two weeks
after having entered tho Arctic
Ocean the Jeannette became solidly
frozen in an ice pack and never es-
capped from 1t. In the grip of what
was to prove her tomb, the lucltless
vessel was carried hither and thither
by the drifting ice. Eventually she
was crushed and her people had to
abandon her, forming a camp on
nearby berg. This was in June, 1881.
about a O'Clock the next morning, +"
one OF the survivors wrote, "the camp
was aroused by the man on the watch
crying: Turn out If you want to see
the last of the Jeannette-there she
goes' Most of u.s." the CHASTITY rec
ord continues, "had barely time to
rise, when, amid the rattling and
banging of her timbers and iron
work, the ship righted and stood al
most upright; the foes that had come
in and crushed her slowly backed Off
and as she sank with slightly accel-
Grated velocity the yard arms were
stripped and broken upward parallel
TO the masts, and so, like a great
gaunt skeleton, clapping IT'S hands
above its head, she plunged out of
sight,
De Longs Tragic Fate.
The Jeannette had been provisioned
for three years, but as no tidings had
been received of her mp to 1891, two
other vessels were sent in search of
her. One party, under the command
of Engineer George w. Melville, of
the United States Navy, reached
Yakutsk, and afterward found the
bodies of De Long and some of the
crew. To quote from Melville's own
narratives:
81 identified De Long at glance
by his coat. He lay on his right side,
with his right hand under his cheek,
his head pointing north, and his face
turned to the west. His feet were
drawn slightly up as though he were
sleeping; his left arm was raised with
the elbow bent, and his hand, thus
horizontally lifted, was bare. About
four feet back of him, or toward the
east, | found his small notebook or
ice-iournal, whore he had tossed it
with his left hand, which looked as
though it had never recovered from
| the act, but had frozen, as | found il,
upraised."
! Perhaps no better picture of terrors
of the Arctic and it's stabbing cold
can be found than that which is given
by Mr.. Melville: "A cold, barren
plateau, between small outlying
promontory and bleak weather.
riven rock of red syenite reaching up
to the skies, on which even the MOSES
and lichens would scarce grow. The
raging of the wind and the pitiless
sea, and the roar of the black water
of the bay dashing over the ice-foot,
made the lonesome picture look cold
er and more appalling. Drifts of ice
and snow choked the ravines and hol-
| lnwC IN nd 40
famished, skeleton-like survivors, not
a living thing appeared on the whit
ened landscape. The region truly
seemed to be the most desolate on
the face of the earth. 1t looked as
though the curses of 10000 witches
and even the birds would not dare to
take their fight across the lifeless
land, lest they, too, fall victims into
the death-gap below.
Struggling up the valley of death
against the frantic wind from the low
point to the westward of the camp,
where we managed with difficulty to
effect a landing in our whaleboats,
we first came upon the remains of
the winter habitation,q parallelogram
of four walls about three feet high
built of loose stone, the inside di-
mensions being eighteen by twenty
| two feet, with a tunnel or covered
way facing the mountain to the
southwark. This hut had been rooted
over with the whaleboats turned up
side down and covered with the sails
and tent cloths; the smoke flue made
of old tin kettles bound with bits of
canvas was thrown to one side, and
water had risen in and about the