f the party withdrew and started on their return to camp.
All who were now left were Lieutenant Lockwood, Sergeant Brainard, and
the Eskemo Frederick.

Lockwood apportioned rations for twenty-five days among the three.
Consequently the northward journey and the return must be made within
that time, since they believed it impossible to obtain food in that
fearful region. Shaking hands with their companions, who wished them
good-speed, the little party broke into two divisions, one tramping
southward, while the other resumed its laborious journey toward the
northeast.

Before Lockwood left Cape Sabine, Lieutenant Greely gave it as his
belief that his brave assistant might succeed in reaching Cape
Britannia, which lies about 40 deg. east and 82 deg. 45' north. The
explorer Beaumont saw this cape, but was unable to reach it. When
Lockwood and Brainard arrived there, however, they had no thought of
stopping. A cairn was built, a written account of their travels
deposited, and five days' rations left. Then the heroes bent to their
herculean task again.

The Eskemo was left with the dogs, while the two white men, wrapped in
their furs, laboriously climbed an adjoining mountain, half a mile in
height. From the crest they scanned the snowy landscape, the very
picture of desolation. Twenty miles to the northeast, the direction they
were traveling, they made out a dark promontory, terminating in a rocky
headland and penetrating the Polar Ocean, while between it and them a
number of islands reared their heads and were separated by fiords. Half
of the remaining horizon was filled with the dismal ice of the Frozen
Sea.

They had no expectation of meeting with animal life in this world of
desolation, but they fired several times (and missed) at ptarmigan, and,
having wounded a rabbit, succeeded in running it down. It was a mystery
to them how this little animal found the means of sustaining life so
near the Pole.

It may be wondered how far these three men would have gone had it been
possible to travel. They became accustomed to the exhaustive work, but
the end of the journey was reached on the 13th of May, when they paused
on the edge of an immense fissure in the ice, extending indefinitely to
the right and left, and too broad to be crossed. They searched for a
long time, only to learn that it was utterly out of their power to go a
foot further. Nothing remained but to learn their exact location.

While Lockwood was preparing