stefansson-wrangel-09-26-001-045

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30

rations for four men. The Captain told them they could have any-
thing they wanted (except dogs - these would all remain with the
main party.)

I think it was the third morning after this that the
Captain sent two or three sleds with loads of provisions to Herald
Island with the intention to of joining the Mate’s party. About the 10th
of February the sleds returned with the news that when they arrived
at Herald Island they found the ice had done considerable crushing.
They could discover no sign of the Mate’s party. They seemed to
have disappeared off the face of the earth. The search party
camped about three miles from Herald Island, for they could not get
ashore because of water and slush ice. Next day they hunted again
for signs of people living or deadthe Mate's party but found none. During the next
night the ice commenced working. The piece they were camped on
X was a small, solid cake, but Tthe next morning at daylight they found
X they were adrift on it with water all around them, going to the west at a
mile or two an hour. (Some similar thing had probably happened to
the Mate’s party.) After drifting a few hours, their cake touched
the pack and they were able to get off. One of their sleds col-
lapsed, so they cached their load - which was never found again.
On the return trip they met the Doctor’s party and found them in
pretty bad shape. The sailor, Morris, had blood poisoning in one
of his hands and poor Beuchat had frozen both feet from the ankles
down and both hands from the wrists solid. He couldn’t get his
boots and stockings on or his mittens, and he was in a very pitiable
plight. The most cheerful one seemed to be Murray. The Doctor
appeared all in. They were double-tripping their stuff and Beuchat
remained at the camp to look out for their things. Chafe wanted
him to return to Shipwreck Camp but Beuchat would not. He knew

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