“The Freja Arctic Exploring Expedition landed at this point October 28, 1891.  Our ship was nipped and sunk in 76 deg. 10 min. north latitude on the l2th of July last.  I then attempted a southerly march to Wrangel Island, but found such a course impracticable on account of northerly drift of ice.  On the lst of October I accordingly struck off to the westward to find open water at the limit of the ice, being compelled to abandon one boat and two sledges on the way.  A second boat was crushed beyond repair in drifting ice while attempting a landing at this place.  Our one remaining boat being too small to accommodate the members of the expedition, circumstances oblige me to begin an overland march toward Kolyuchin Bay, following the line of the coast.  We expect either to winter among the Chuckch settlements mentioned by Nordenskjold as existing upon the eastern shores of Kolyuchin Bay or to fall in with the relief ships or the steam whalers en route.  By issuing half rations I have enough provisions for eighteen days, and have saved all records, observations, papers, instruments, etc.  Enclosed is the muster roll of the expedition.  No scurvy as yet and no deaths.  Our sick are William Hawes, carpenter, arctic fever, serious; David McPherson, seaman, ulceration of left foot, serious.  The general condition of the rest of the men is fair, though much weakened by exposure and lack of food.

(Signed) “Ward Bennett, Commanding.”

But during the night, their first night on land, Bennett resolved upon a desperate expedient.  Not only the boat was to be abandoned, but also the sledges, and not only the sledges, but every article of weight not absolutely necessary to the existence of the party.  Two weeks before, the sun had set not to rise again for six months.  Winter was upon them and darkness.  The Enemy was drawing near.  The great remorseless grip of the Ice was closing.  It was no time for half-measures and hesitation; now it was life or death.

The sense of their peril, the nearness of the Enemy, strung Bennett’s nerves taut as harp-strings.  His will hardened to the flinty hardness of the ice itself.  His strength of mind and of body seemed suddenly to quadruple itself.  His determination was that of the battering-ram, blind, deaf, resistless.  The ugly set of his face became all the more ugly, the contorted eyes flashing, the great jaw all but simian.  He appeared physically larger.  It was no longer a man; it was a giant, an ogre, a colossal jotun hurling ice-blocks, fighting out a battle unspeakable, in the dawn of the world, in chaos and in darkness.

The impedimenta of the expedition were broken up into packs that each man carried upon his shoulders.  From now on everything that hindered the rapidity of their movements must be left behind.  Six dogs (all that remained of the pack of eighteen) still accompanied them.

Bennett had hoped and had counted upon his men for an average daily march of sixteen miles, but the winter gales driving down from the northeast beat them back; the ice and snow that covered the land were no less uneven than the hummocks of the pack.  All game had migrated far to the southward.