Of the twenty-five men of the party eighteen had died. The living were: Greely, Brainard, Long, Frederick, Bierderbick, Connell, and Elison. It was found necessary, however, to perform secondary amputation in the case of Elison, and he died at Godhavn on the 8th of July. As regards the responsibility for the great disaster which overtook this expedition, Greely admitted that, although not under orders to do so, he should have done more than arrange for a retreat to Cape Sabine in the event of not being reached at Conger. But little blame can be attached to him for this omission. It is easy to criticise after the event, but it seemed in the highest degree improbable that, if he could not be reached at Conger, there would be the least difficulty in the relief ships leaving sufficient supplies at Cape Sabine or other point on the west coast. The disaster can be traced in the first place to the instructions given to Greely to abandon the station and retreat to the south in the event of no relief ship reaching him. It would have been much better to have left this question to Greely’s discretion. If the party had remained at Conger another winter, it is highly probable that no disaster would have occurred. In the second place, the chief responsibility undoubtedly lay with those who had charge of the relief. A ship was sent north in 1882, and failed in its mission; but instead of leaving its stores, or even part of its stores, at some point likely to be reached by Greely, those in command took the incredible course of returning south with the stores intact. In 1883 those in authority must have known that absolutely nothing had been done in 1882, and that in the event of a failure to reach Conger taking place in 1883, Greely would certainly retreat southwards. One would therefore have expected that all possible precautions would be taken to insure the safety of the expedition. The possible wreck of one of the relief ships should have been arranged for, and steps taken to insure that sufficient supplies would not only be left at Littleton Island, but at some point on the west coast. Serious responsibility was incurred by Lieutenant Garlington when he made the written statement that everything in the power of man would be done to relieve the expedition. All through the horrors of the winter nearly the whole of Greely’s party believed to the last that a relieving party was at Littleton Island watching the first favourable opportunity to cross the Sound. The whole arrangements for the relief ended in a gigantic muddle, and while nothing was done to lend assistance, Greely’s party were induced by fair promises to camp in a practically barren region. * * * * *