Evening star., 1924-10-14
CONTINUED from First Page.)
her, uncovered the pitiful remains of
Herald Island, September 19, last.
Relics Identify Members.

Some bones a corroded rifle penn
rliCart ammunition q sled and other
camp equipment, established beyond
doubt the identity of the men we
found. Other parties have passed
since they died 10 years ago. other
Nrangen explorers have died. Winds
and polar bears have tumhlcd their
skulls about. a few more years ana
there would have been nothing to tell
what became Of them.
Capt. Lane always believed the
AIackay party might have reached
Herald Island 50. when driven by
foul weather. we found ourselves in
the shelter of its high. slate cliffs. 3S
miles from Wrangel. h" climbed the
crows nest himself to sean the shore
Tine. as We worked in.
There's a camp there. sure
enough declared the captain. as he
descended to the deck and the whale
boat was lowered to take US ashore.
Young i,c WAS making and impeded
progress somewhat. but We reached
the line of grounded ice cakes near
shore and from them made our way
TO the beach.
II was one Of our few days Of sun
shine and becalm. Gravelly beach
was covered with thin layer of
snow. blown bare i'll spots. drlfted IN
others, and criSS-crosSed by tracks Of
Ecyond near the foot Of the islet's
ridg". we could see gdYnt outlines Of
sled. and. round Il bout. - number
of black objects which later proved
to bc tins of Irmmican.
Find Remains of Camp.
Here w,rn the remains Of camp
For Il moment We stood in Silcnc-.
Then. before anything was touched.
Sid Snow made u photograph Of the
camp. exactly as We found it. We
gathered up everything and piled
various articles on the sled We
found them. one of the first things
we discovered was Il 1870 "incheS-
ter rifle. lying on a hare patch of
gravel. Its stock was weathered al
most white, but cut into the wood the
initials AZ. NJ" were distinctly TO be
seen.
The barrel OF the gun WAS thickly
"orroded with rust and tn" magazine
partly eaten away. disclosing the
cartridges inside green with age and
exposure. 4 loaded rifle cartrid 60
nearby indicated that death had not
come to the party on whose camp we
GaZed through shortage Of ammuni-
tion. This was amply confirmed be-
fore many minutes by the discovery
Of whole packages of cartridges. un-
touched. Not far away were the
crossed thigh bones of a man: a little
beyond. Il hleached shoulder bladr.
The beach was str-wn with drift
wood and a largr log lay right in the
middle OF the camp, on the side op-
postte to the sled found the re-
mains OF the party'S tents. The bed
tent had collapsed upon til" bed and
those in IL for, as "" scraped away
IN" snow and carefully pulled the
frozen. deCayei canvas from what
beneath, "c found parts of hu-
ms.u skeletons. Th.y lay a. if the
mon had died in their sleep. 7" the.
bones still cluug remnants "t the
reindeer skin sleeping bags
Find Lower Jaw.
Suddenly some nu.. said. "l'x. found
mans lower jaw" There it was
hleaChed and withcr"d. but with all
the teeth intact, az when its owner
died. \ young man. this. Tor on.
wisdom tooth was still below the
level of the jaw and the other had
not fully grown; :. young man with
a firm. Cap. BILE jaw. cleft as to chin
and fine regular teeth.
4 moment later another Tower jaw
was uncovered; this time appar-
emily that Of an older man. one
more jaw was discovered. this time
also evidently that of a middIe-aged
hundreds Of yards from the camp
site, along tn" foot of the slope.
found fourth jaw bone. 1t was in
fairly deep snow and there WAS moth
ing to show how it came to be so far
away from camp. 1t appears To have
been that of an older man than any
OF the others.
Bones belonging to every part OF
the body were discovered. but, al
though We searched everywhere. we
were unable to find d single skull.
in tho frozen folds of the decayed
tent and sleeping bag We're the bones
Of a hand. complete even to the nails.
Why had these men died" This ques-
tion oppressed US all. 1t became
more and more inSiStent as each ar
rirIc was uncovered.
Why should men die who had plenty
of fuel. materials for shelter, as well
As ammunition with which to procure
food: The beach was strewn with
driftwood, and we found several
lunches Of Chinese matches. We
found large large and a small tins
of pentmican. and in addition to the
500 Winchester already mentioned,
a % Winchester automatic. with sew
eral dozen shells for the former and
several hundred rounds for the lat
ter, as we'll as eight or nine dozen
steel jaC keted Gibbs 256 Magnum KIN
cartridges for which we could find
no rifle.
Camp Amply Supplied.
We also found Il supply of .3s Win
chester revolver cartridges. but no
gun for them. Following is Il list of
articles found in addition to those
already enumerated:
Primus stove "a. Il. IIovett Co. New
York;, a silver watch (no identifying
marks disceruible). a pocket com
pass in a nickel case, shaped like a
watch; two pairs of snow glasses, a
set of sled harness, evidently for a
man; two ice picks, pickaX head,
a hand AK, ankle belt. buckle, ther-
mometer. snow shoes. a pair of
broken skis d dozen small bottles
tabloid Sacchariu. tea, pocket knives,
one with letter M or 'N'' cut in its
handle, but not a scrap of paper. No
memorandum books. No diaries or
records. Nothing to tell their grisly
story save the mute evidence which
wc had gathered.
We searched carefully for further
relics of the dead but were greatly
hampercd by the snow and frozen
ground. Capt. Lane ordered that
beach and slope be carefully examined
III ease there might be something to
show that records or messages had
ia'fli Julie pul thcTe was IOtHInS.
We noted Il depression inside of a
slope of loose Shale behind the camp,
and dug down into it, thinking some
thing might have been buried there,
but found nothing. There was no
cairn or mound, nothing to indicate
that an attempt had ever been made
to erect signal of any kind.
All we knew was that. surrounded
by all the necessities of life, these
\ 4. g.
attempt reconstruction of the
tragedy, so far as can be deduced