“To-day I caught six pounds of shrimps. This evening (June 6) dinner consisted of a stew composed of two boot-soles, a handful of reindeer moss, and a few rock lichens. The small quantity of shrimps which I furnish daily are sufficient only for the morning meal.
“Wednesday, June 11, 1884. Long returned at 1:30 A.M. from the open water, bringing with him two fine guillemots which he had killed. One of these was given to the general mess, and the other will be divided among those who are doing the heavy work for their weaker companions. This evening a great misfortune befell me. The spring tides have broken out the ice at the shrimping place, and my nets have been carried away and lost; my baits, poor and miserable as they were, are gone also. It is anything but pleasant to reflect that to-morrow morning we will have no breakfast except a cup of tea. It was quite late when I returned this evening from shrimping, and everybody had retired. I did not have the heart to awaken the poor fellows, but I let them sleep on quietly under the delusion that breakfast would await them at the usual hour in the morning. How I pity them!
“I made a flag, or distress signal, as it might be more properly termed, which I intend placing on the high, rocky point just north of our tent, where it may be seen by any vessel passing Cape Sabine.”
SCHLEY’S BRILLIANT RESCUE
Ten days later the whistle of the Thetis blown by Captain Schley’s orders to recall his searching parties fell lightly on the ears of the dying Commander of the Lady Franklin Bay expedition.
“I feebly asked Brainard and Long if they had strength to go out,” writes Greely, “and they answered, as always, that they would do their best.”
From the cutter, as it entered the cove, Lieutenant Colwell, straining his eyes, recognized the familiar landmarks of the year before.
“There, on the top of a little ridge, fifty or sixty yards above the ice-foot, was plainly outlined the figure of a man. Instantly the coxswain caught up the boat-hook and waved the flag. The man on the ridge had seen them, for he stooped, picked up a signal flag from the rock, and waved it in reply. Then he was seen coming slowly and cautiously down the steep, rocky slope. Twice he fell down before he reached the foot. As he approached, still walking feebly and with difficulty, Colwell hailed him from the bow of the boat:—
“‘Who all are there left?’
“‘Seven left.’”