Nessark came in good time with Wilson and Whipple, the last of the sick; the old hut was now deserted, and all were with the boats except one. Hans had been missing for nearly two months. Early in April he came to his commander with a long face and a very plausible story; he had, he said, no boots; he wanted to go to one of the Esquimo settlements a little south to get a stock of walrus-hides. He did not want the dogs; he would walk, and be back in good time. But the hitherto faithful and trusted Hans had not returned. When inquiry was made of the people of Etah they said he certainly called there, and engaged of one of the women a pair of boots, and then pushed on to Peteravik, where Shanghee and his pretty daughter lived. The last information they had of him they gave with a shrug of the shoulders and a merry twinkle of the eye. He had been seen by one of their people once since he left Etah; he was then upon a native sledge, Shanghee's daughter at his side, bound south of Peteravik. He had forsaken the explorers for a wife! The party were one day feeling their way along cautiously, pioneers going ahead and trying the soundness of the ice by thumping with boat hooks and narwhal horns. Suddenly a shout of distress was heard. The "Red Eric" had broken in! She contained the document box of the expedition, the loss of which would make their whole work profitless to the world even should the party be saved. She had on board too many provision bags. But, after great exposure and labor, all was saved in good condition, and the boat hauled upon the ice. Several of the men had narrow escapes. Stephenson was caught as he sunk by the sledge runner, and Morton was drawn out by the hair of his head as he was disappearing under the ice. A grateful shout went up from all hands that nothing serious resulted from the accident. CHAPTER XXIV. ESQUIMO KINDNESS. THE company made slow and tiresome progress by Littleton Island, and were carrying their entire load forward in parcels to the mainland at the northern opening of Etah Bay, when the sad news was whispered to Dr. Kane, who was with the advanced party, that Ohlsen was dead. A gloom spread over the whole company. The fact was carefully concealed from the Esquimo, who were sent to Etah under the pretext of bringing back a supply of birds, the entire dog force being given them to hasten their departure. The funeral service, though attended by sincere grief, was necessarily brief. The body was sewed up in Ohlsen's own blankets, the burial service read, the prayer offered, and it was borne by his comrades in solemn procession to a little gorge on the shore, and deposited in a trench made with extreme difficulty. A sheet of lead, on which his name and age was cut, was laid upon his breast; a monument of stones was erected over it, to preserve it from the beasts of prey, and to mark the spot. They named the land which overshadowed the spot Cape Ohlsen.