land he supposed he saw to westward. An extract from one of Captain De
Long's letters, making known his intention to retreat upon the Siberian
settlements in the event of disaster to the _Jeannette_, says, in
reference to a ship's being sent to obtain intelligence of him: "If the
ship comes up merely for tidings of us let her look for them on the east
side of Kellett land and on Herald island." Being in a measure guided by
this information, the _Corwin_ made the forementioned places objective
points in the search. It was not, however, till after the coal bunkers
were replenished with bituminous coal from a seam in the cliff above
Cape Lisburne, that an effort was made to reach the island. During the
run westward--a distance of 245 miles--the fine weather enabled us to
witness some curious freaks of refraction and other odd phenomena for
which the high latitudes are so remarkable. On July 30, the fine weather
continuing, everybody was correspondingly elate and merry when both
Herald and Wrangel islands were sighted from the "cro'-nest" and, as
they were neared, apparently free from ice. This illusion, however, was
soon dispelled. On approaching the land strong tide rips were
encountered, and finally the ice, the drift of which was shown by the
drop of a lead-line to be west-northwest. We steamed through about
fifteen miles of this ice before being stopped, less than half a mile
from the southeast end of the island by the fixed ice, to which the ship
was secured with a kedge. We got off, and after considerable climbing
and scrambling up and down immense hummocks, and jumping a number of
crevices, finally set foot on the land we had been so long trying to
reach. Our advent created a great commotion among the myriads of birds
that frequent the ledges and cliffs, and the intrusion caused them to
whirl about in a motley cloud and scream at each other in ceaseless
uproar. A few minutes sufficed to survey the situation, before
attempting to ascend at a spot that seemed scarcely to afford footing
for a goat. Near the foot of the cliffs were seen on the one hand