Ice Pack and Tundra; An Account of the Search for the Jeannette and a Sledge Journey Through Siberia

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883. First Edition. Near Fine. [9.5x6.5in]; xi, [1], 344 pp., map, [4] advertisements, frontispiece illustration of Jeannette search party, 47 illustrations, many from photographs, on plates and in text, 3 maps (two in color and one fold out); Dark Blue green cloth cover with gilt lettering on front and spine and black and white illustrations on front and spine, dark gray clay end papers, all edges trimmed; Minimal shelf wear to covers, edges or corners with slight rubbing and top and bottom of spine, spine slightly darken, binding is tight with short crack at top rear hinge, bookseller stamp of Geary's Book Store, Wilkes-Barre, PA in lower front end paper. [Arctic Biblio 5744, Tourville 1715, Howgego III D5]. William Henry Gilder (1838-1900) was a journalist that accompanied the USS Rodgers on the Jeannette Relief Expedition in 1881. The Rodgers cruised through the Bering and Chukchi seas to Wrangel and Herald Islands looking for evidence of the Jeannette. Anchored on the Siberian coast in winter quarters the ship was lost by fire and the crew made a sledge trip to the closest settlements in the Lena Delta. There, they found the survivors of the Jeannette and assisted in their ultimate rescue. Gilder's journal from June 1881 to August 1882 recounts the trip and was one of the first published works about the Jeannette tragedy, predating Melville and DeLong books in 1884.

The 'Jeannette', under the command of George DeLong, was sent to investigate the Open Polar Sea theory that was predicted the warm Pacific Kiro Shio current would enter the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait and create an ice free sea. The 'Jeannette' entered the Arctic Ocean and the ship became icebound, drifted northwest 350 Km and was sunk in May 1881 some 400 Km from the Siberian coast. The 33 men provisioned three life boats to drag over the ice to open water for the nearest settlements in Lena Delta. On the water, they became separated in a gale and one boat vanished. George Melville's boat, with 11 men, landed in an eastern bay of the Delta and were able to reach a village to find help. De Long's boat, with 14 men, landed 100 km away on the northwestern part of the Delta. With winter coming, they were not able to find shelter or game and all perished by the end of October 1881. They were found by Melville's rescue party in March 1882, and the bodies, journals and artifacts returned to the United States.