Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/317

• nah saved it by a dexterous movement which could

have been performed with safety only by one familiar, by long experience, with such dangers and expedients.

BURIAL OF SONNTAG. The body of our late comrade was placed in the observatory, where a few weeks before his fine mind had been intent upon those pursuits which were the delight of his life; and on the little staff which surmounted the building the flag was raised at half-mast.

The preparations for the funeral were conducted with fitting solemnity. A neat coffin was made under the supervision of Mr. McCormick, and the body having been placed therein with every degree of care, it was, on the second day after the return of Mr. Dodge, brought outside and covered with the flag, and then, followed by the entire ship's company, in solemn procession, it was borne by four of the sorrowing mess-*mates of the deceased to the grave which had, with much difficulty, been dug in the frozen terrace. As it lay in its last cold resting-place, I read over the body the burial-service, and the grave was then closed. Above it we afterward built, with stones, a neatly shaped mound, and marked the head with a chiseled slab, bearing this inscription:—

AUGUST SONNTAG.

Died

December, 1860,

AGED 28 YEARS.

And here in the drear solitude of the Arctic desert our comrade sleeps the sleep that knows no waking in this troubled world,—where no loving hands can