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for Wrangel Island, which lay eighty-one miles away. Then began one of the most
terrible marches in the modern history of the Arctic. Several men insisted on
heading for Herald Island and perished on the ice.

The others led by Bartlett, pushed forward day by day for Wrangel Island,
fighting their way over broken ice fields and assailed by fierce blizzards. As Maurer
was turning to leave the Karluk, the ship’s cat stepped into view. Although, like
the other survivors, he was heavily burdened by a load of provisions and clothes, he
picked up the cat, wrapped it in clothing and carried it in his arms. On a march
where every extra ounce of weight might spell disaster, Maurer steadfastly refused
to abandon the cat.

At the end of two months having covered eighty-two miles of broken ice fields,
the party reached Wrangel Island.

In the meantime the fate of the Karluk and those aboard had become the great
mystery of the day. It remained a mystery until Captain Bartlett suddenly appeared
on the Siberian Coast in June, 1914, voyaging to Nome with the news of the disaster.

Eleven Survivors Found.

Several efforts to reach Wrangel Island that summer resulted in failure and then
the power schooner King and Winge, carrying the trading expedition of the old Hibbard-
Swanson Company of Seattle, left her commercial ventures to attempt the rescue. The
expedition was headed by Mr. Swenson. The King & Winge reached the Island in September.
Of the twenty-four men who had left the Karluk, only eleven were found alive on the
island. Eleven had perished. The two others were Captain Bartlett and a native who
accompanied him on his perilous trip across the ice to Siberia.

"Maurer was one of the first men we found on the island," said Mr. Swenson yester-
day. "I remember him well because of his kindness to the Karluk’s cat. We brought him
aboard the King & Winge and as he reached the deck he keeled over.

"When we sailed away from Wrangel Island with the eleven survivors, Maurer still