File:In the Lena Delta; a narrative of the search for Lieut.-Commander De Long and his companions (1884) (14770935725).jpg

Identifier: inlenadeltanarra01melv (find matches)
Title: In the Lena Delta; a narrative of the search for Lieut.-Commander De Long and his companions
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: Melville, George W. (George Wallace), 1841-1912 Philips, M. (Melville), ed
Subjects: Greely relief expedition. (from old catalog)
Publisher: Boston, Houghton, Mifflin and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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sts which pierced theirpoor unclad bodies in life would wail their wild dirgethrough all time, — there we buried them, and surelyheroes never found fitter resting-place. We were over-awed by the very simplicity of the obsequies, the oppres-sive stillness, the wonderful wilderness of white rollingendlessly around us; and, more than all, by our sorrow-ing memories of the dead. No unhallowed lip mumbledan unmeaning prayer, but only a low good-by, sleepwell, broke the silence, as, natives and all, we took ourlast look. Then covering the bodies with bits of canvas andsome other material at hand, we laid the planks acrossthe box, weighting them down with stones, and nighthad fallen. The day following the Yakuts hauled loadafter load of round timber from the flats and sands below.Large logs were rolled in at the sides and ends of thebox, and a pyramidal frame-work erected therefrom, tolie upon and strengthen it. A ridge-pole was notched ■■■»Wpwi;tujjuaiiiHWgwmBWii^-it!.JMi m. t Mm 1
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THE BURIAL. 345 into the sides of the upright post, and diagonals fitted tobrace the cross and support the structure built around it.The top and sides were then covered with round timber,resting upon and against the ridge-pole, and completing aframe about twelve feet wide, thirty feet long, and ninefeet high. Upon this we heaped the huge rocks, some ofmore than a hundred weight, which Jack Frost had socunningly quarried for us, until the entire cache wasroofed in ; and it was my intention to cover it the follow-ing summer with sods from the tundra, and to start theArctic willow to grow upon it. By this time Nindemann had returned from his jour-ney to Ericksens hut, and the only remaining thing tobe done was the elevation of the cross-piece into place;which, after several ineffectual attempts, we finally ac-complished. Nindemann then drove in the wooden key,and a cross-key to keep the other from working out, and— poor fellow ! — in so doing he froze his fingers, nose,and ears; for

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