and shore to the lee of a stranded iceberg. Building material for
a house and part of the stores were removed to the land in case anything
happened to the ship. Then the ship was banked up with snow and part of
the deck was covered with canvas to keep out the cold.

The weather being propitious, Captain Hall thought best to take a sledge
journey to find the lay of the country. He ordered the dogs to be well
fed, and accompanied by two other sledges advanced northward about fifty
miles, making side trips to take observations. At the end of two weeks
he returned seemingly perfectly well, but in a few hours complained of
illness. Thirteen days afterward he died. The date of his death was
November 8, 1871, just a little more than four months from the time he
left the port of New London buoyant with hope.

The command of the expedition now devolved on Captain Buddington, a man
of dissipated habits and lacking in discipline. During the winter and
spring severe storms crashed the ice-pack against the sides of the
vessel, causing it to leak. In the meantime exploring parties were sent
out with sledges and boats, gathering not a little knowledge concerning
the west coast of Greenland. Then the vessel began to leak badly, and
Captain Buddington ordered all hands on board for return home.

Great fields of ice still covered the sea, and it was with extreme
difficulty that the vessel made its way through them southward. A
severe gale damaged the vessel still more, and as it seemed certain that
it could not float much longer, preparations to abandon it and to move
at once to the ice-floe were made.

At the dead of night, in the face of a fierce gale, a part of the ship's
company and stores were transferred to the ice. Then the heaving billows
broke the vessel loose from the floe, separating the men on the ice from
those on the vessel. With eighteen companions Captain Tyson lived on the
ice-floe which moved southward, breaking off piece after piece, for a
period of six and one-half months, suffering incredible hardships from
cold, hunger, and constant fear. Finally, they were sighted off the
Labrador coast by the ship _Tigress_ and rescued in a starving
condition. The story of this ice-floe journey of one thousand three
hundred miles is one of the most thrilling in maritime annals.
Fortunately, there were two Eskimos on the ice-floe skilled in the
capture of seals, else the entire company would have starved to death,
since but a sm