Soon reunited again, behind our dripping captain the entire ship’s company straggled across the ice-foot to solid ground (the steep face of the cliff), where clinging to the precipice with one hand, the captain for the third time on our voyage displayed his silken banner, proudly rammed its staff for a moment into the soil, and exclaimed,
“Men, this is newly discovered land. I therefore take possession of it in the name of the President of the United States, and name it,
“Bennett Island!”
The men, most of them (except the five who had landed with me on Henrietta Island) with their feet on solid ground for the first time in two years, cheered lustily. Jack Cole then sang out,
“All hands, now. Three cheers fer Cap’n De Long!” in which all again joined except Collins and (for the first time in his life managing to keep his mouth shut when anybody gave him an order) Newcomb.
But our happy captain, not noticing that, turned to his executive officer and jocularly remarked,
“We’ve been a long time afloat, Mr. Chipp. You may now give the men all the shore leave they wish on American soil!”
It was July 28th when we landed; we stayed a week on Bennett Island, resting mainly, while Nindemann and Sweetman worked strenuously repairing our boats. All were badly damaged and unseaworthy from the pounding they had received in the pack. The whaleboat especially, our longest boat, had suffered severely and every plank in its stern was sprung wide open. Sweetman did the best he could in hurrying repairs, pouring grease into the leaking seams and refastening planks, but it was a slow job nevertheless.
While this was going on, the men explored Bennett Island, which we found to be of considerable extent (we never got to its northwest cape), probably thirty miles long and over ten miles wide, very mountainous, with many glaciers, running streams, no game we ever saw, and thousands of birds nesting on the cliffs. This island, at least three times the size of Henrietta Island, nicely finished off the honors due the Bennett family, for we now had one each for Mr. Bennett, his sister, and his mother.
Geologically, we found the island interesting. I discovered a thick vein of bituminous coal, and Dr. Ambler found many deposits of amethyst crystals, but what took our fancy most were the birds. We knocked down innumerable murres with stones, which, fried in bear’s grease, we ate with great relish. But they proved too much for Dr. Ambler’s stomach, laying him in his tent for over a day.