Page:The frozen North; an account of Arctic exploration for use in schools (IA frozennorthaccou00hort).pdf/93

 traveled consisted of large blocks that floated rapidly and were constantly changing their position. Sometimes the men were obliged to jump into the water and swim from one block to another. The dogs were almost useless; they refused to jump, and tried to run away. The men pushed them into the water, and then they had to swim for their lives. This seems cruel treatment, but Arctic exploration means severe suffering for all who engage in it, and the help of the dogs was absolutely necessary.

Henrietta island was rocky and ice-capped, not in itself a very valuable possession for the United States of America; yet the Stars and Stripes were set up there, and a square copper case, containing copies of the New York Herald and a record of the voyage, was placed in a cairn. Then the sledge party returned to the ship. The Jeannette was in dire distress, for the ice around her, now rapidly breaking up, was by turns receding and closing in. Every time it closed in, it pressed against her sides with tremendous force, so that her timbers fairly creaked.

But brave Captain De Long would not leave his ship until he was quite certain that she was going to sink, and her hold was full of water before he gave orders to abandon her. Then the crew had to work with desperate haste to transfer provisions, tents, and boats to a safe place on the ice. At four o'clock in the morning of June 13, the Jeannette sank to the bottom of the Arctic ocean. The ice closed over the place where the little vessel had endured such terrific grinding for twenty-one months, and only a cabin chair and a few pieces of wood remained to mark the spot.

Imagine the condition of the men left on the ice so many miles from land. But they worked with calm courage to arrange their provisions and all the articles which were