The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-10-15
SKELETONS FOUND
OF ARCTIC PARTY
Continued From Page ~

CONTINUED From Page H.
gel, he climbed the crows nest him
self to scan the shore line as We worked
in.
Camp Is Found
There's camp there, sure enough"
declared the captain, as he descended
to the deck and the whale boat was
lowered to take us ashore. Young
ice 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 bench.
1t was one of our few days of sun
shine and the calm gravelly beach was
covered with thin layer of snow.
blown bare in spots and drifted in 9th
ers and criscrossed by tracks of Arctic
foxes and huge Polar bears. Beyond
near the foot of the islets ridge he
would see gaunt outlines of sled and,
round about, n number of black OBJ
jects witch later proved to be tins OF
pemmican.
Here were the remains of camp.
For a moment we stood in silence. Then
before anything was touched, Sid Snow
made photographs of the camp, exactly
as we found it. We gathered up ev.
orything and piled various articles Oh
1.-The sled as we found them. One of
the first things we found was a 5000
| Winchester rifle lying on a bare patch
of gravel. Its stock was weathered nj
most white, but cut into the wood, the
initials "B. NJ" were distinctly to be
seen.
The barrel of the gun was thickly
corroded with rust and the magazine
partly eaten away, disclosing the 'car-
tridges inside, green with age and ex-
posture. A loaded rifle cartridge nearby
| indicated that death had not come to
the party, on whose camp we gnzed,
through shortage of ammunition. This
was amply confirmed before many min
utes of the discovery of whole pack
ages of cartridges, untouched. Not far
away were the crossed thigh bones of
a man. A little beyond little bleached
shoulder blade.
Died In Beds
The beach was strewn with drift
wood and a large log lay right in the
middle of the camp. On the side OppOs-
lite to the sled we found the remains
of the party's tents. The bed tent had
collapsed upon the bed and those in it.
For as we scraped away the snow and
carefully pulled the frozen, decayed
canvas from what was beneath, we
found parts Of human skeletons. They
lay as if the men had died in their
Sleep To the bones still chung rem
nants of, the reindeer skin SLEEPING bags.
Suddenly some one said: I've found
mans lower Jaw" There it was,
bleached and withered, but with all the
teeth intact when its owner died 1t
was young man, this, for one wisdom
tooth was still below the level of the
jaw and the other had not fully grown.
A young man with firm, capable jaw.
Cleft as to chin\and fine regular teeth.
A moment later, another lower jaw
was uncovered. This time also
evidently that of q middle-aged man.
One of our Eskimos, roaming hundreds
of yards from tl.s camp site, along the
foot of the slope, found a fourth jaw
bone. 1t was in fairly deep snow and
there was nothing to show how it came
to be so far away from camp. 1t APP
pears to have been that of an older
man than any of the others.
Bones belonging to every part of. the
body were discovered but, although we
searched everywhere, we were unable
to find a single skull. In the frozen
folds of the decayed tent and sleeping
bag were the bones of hand, complete
even to the nails. Why had these men
died? This question puzzled us all,
1t became more and more insistent as
each article was uncovered. Why should
men die who had plenty of fuel, ma
terials and shelter, food, as we'll as
ammunition with which to procure food
The beach was strewn with driftwOOd
nf IN.
ese matches. We found four large and
twenty-four small tins of pemmican
and in addition to the 5000 Winchester
already mentioned, a 80 Winchester
automatic, with several dozen shells
for the former and several hundred
rounds for the latter, as well as eight
or nine dozen steel jacketed gibbs car
tridges, for which we could find nc
rifle.
We searched carefully for further
relics of the dead, but were greatly
hampered by the snow and frozen
ground. Captain Lane ordered that
beach and slope be carefully examined
In case there might be something to
show that records or messages had been
buried, but there was nothing. We
noted a depression inside of a slope OF
loose shale, behind the camp, and dug
down into it, thinking something might
have been buried there, but found moth
ing. There was no cairn or mound
nothing to indicate that an attempt
had been made to erect a signal of any
kind.
All we know was that. surrounded by
all the necessities of life, these men
died. / asked Captain Lane to attempt
a reconstruction of the tragedy, so far
as can be deduced from evidence. Il
am not sure" Captain Lane said, ''how
long they may have been on the island
before they died. Perhaps a month OIL
two; perhaps not so long. There was
rusted remains of many tin cans but
just how many would be hard to say,
The ashes of their fire indicate that
they were there for at least few days
at any rate.
las to why they died." he went on,
there are in my opinion but four pos
sible causes, one being killed by Polar
bears, two, starvation, three, death from
disease, four, freezing to death. am
satisfied they were not attacked by
Polar bears because there was not a
single bone found showing tooth marks
Had they been killed by bears" he
continued 1T is unlikely tnat two
members of the party would be found
lying in their beds as was the case.