made the terriblest lookin skar we ever seed, and we washed it out and dun the best we kud for him but waz not fix to sow it up agin. He seen us drink the water outen the spring, and he dun so 2. he seen us ketch the birds in the roks and ete um and he dun so 2, he seen us ketch the fish and he dun wut we dun. The frute here is bitter but it helps tu kepe us aliv. Now how long we has lived here we kan’t tel, but we iz goin awa in a bote we bilt outen skraps o drift wood and stuff we found preferin tu resk the orful sea and ice agin than tu liv and rot on this place wher man kums not. Jan von Broekhuysen has grode afeerd o us and runs awa wenever we gos ni him and we seldum ketches a site o’ him. We has lost all kont o time and don’t no how long we has ben here nor wen we kum nor nothin—but ther has ben 1 dark spel and 2 lite spels, and we think it must a ben a yer sence we kum. Siknes and hardship has ni ruined us mind and body, and we don’t keer wut bekomes o us. We bilds this ere rok hut around this box wich we fetched with us havin’ sum o’ our valybles. We makes a pikter of Jan von Broekhuysen and paints that skar on his hed wid our own blud but we douts ef eny man will ever see him agin az he is wilder and skeerier nor a gote. We haz also razed a rok in anuder place for a sine. It is with sorro that we leves our ole komrade—but we kan nether ketch nor tame him. Ef we node wut part uv tho erth we wus in we wud no wher to strik fur, but we don’t, and rekon we will both be drownd afore gettin any whers. Ef eny person finds Jan be kind to him. We leves here amejetly. Jan is livin’ on birds eggs, birds, and fish, and sum o them qur apples there ain’t mutch else tu ete. Kind frends we saz farewel "Yours Truly, (Signed) { "NED MERRICK, { "JOE NILES." The original is very difficult to read, both on account of its peculiar orthography and from its being smirched and weather-stained. We went to the air ship where I recorded this discovery, and then sealed it up in the cairn, carrying the original paper with us. "Sailor like," observed Torrence, "there is not a date in the paper from beginning to end." I had not thought of this before. "He may have been here for years," I added. "He may," Torrence replied, and then producing a paper from a large packet, asked me what I thought of the signature. I started, for I recognized it at once. It was one of those I had seen through the keyhole in the hotel Mustapha, and the signature was the same as the one before me—Ned Merrick. I then recalled the fact that I had heard my brother address the mysterious stranger—I mean the sailor we had first met upon the Thames boat, and whom afterward I had seen at the Mustapha—as Merrick. Could it be possible that he was the same who had escaped through the ice belt to this island? I was amazed, but before I could make an inquiry Torrence continued: