Living thus in constant dread of death, the little company drifted on, seemingly miraculously preserved.

Their floe was at last reduced from a great sheet of ice, perhaps a mile or more square, to a scant ten yards by seventy-five, and this rapidly breaking up.

In two days four whalers passed near enough for them to see, yet failed to see them, but finally their frantic signals attracted attention, and they were picked up--not only the original nineteen who had begun the drift six months earlier, but one new and helpless passenger, for one of the Esquimau women had given birth to a child while on the ice.
The next notable Arctic expedition from the United States had its beginning in journalistic enterprise.

Mr.James Gordon Bennett, owner of the _New York Herald_, who had already manifested his interest in geographical work by sending Henry M.Stanley to find Livingston in the heart of the Dark Continent, fitted out the steam yacht "Pandora," which had already been used in Arctic service, and placed her at the disposal of Lieutenant DeLong, U.S.N., for an Arctic voyage.

The name of the ship was changed to "Jeannette," and control of the expedition was vested in the United States Government, though Mr.Bennett's generosity defrayed all charges.