wreck, with practically no food, and being unable to cross ice-crowded Smith Sound, he built a hut of stones, canvas, boats and ice, in which to winter. He scoured the glacial land and ice-covered sea for game, moss, shrimps, and seaweed, whatever could sustain life, and also began scientific observations which were regularly taken. Scant food and privations caused the first death five months later, and by midsummer only seven were living. On June 23 these were rescued, at the verge of death, by a squadron consisting of the Thetis, Bear and Alert, the last given to the United States by Great Britain for the search. This squadron, under Commander Winfield S. Schley, U. S. N., left New York in April, 1884, and was assisted in its ice navigation by the Scotch whalers, to whom congress promised $25,000 should any effect the rescue. On his return Lieutenant Greely received for his scientific work the highest honors from the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and from other scientific societies, notably the Founder's Medal from the Royal Geographical Society, London, and the Roquette Medal from the Société de Géographic, Paris.
General W. B. Hazen being disabled in 1886, by a fatal illness. Captain Greely, his senior assistant, succeeded to his duties and became acting chief signal officer of the army, to which place he was promoted, with the rank of brigadier-general, on March 3, 1887. He was the first enlisted soldier from the volunteer army in the Civil war to reach that grade in the regular army. General Greely thoroughly reorganized the Weather Bureau, commenced the publication of the Bibliography of Meteorology, collated in tabular form the accumulated local and international data, introduced scientific methods of flood predictions, and initiated the Weather Crop Service. A telegraphic cipher invented by him saved $30,000 annually, and other methods led to a yearly saving of $100,000. Although the law permitted his retention at the head of the Weather Bureau, when it was transferred to the Department of Agriculture, he remained with the Signal Corps, and developed its military features, especially the application of electricity to military uses, outlining its scientific aspects before the Engineering Congress at the World's Fair in Chicago. The work of the Signal Corps under his direction during the Spanish-American war was an epoch in the evolution of field telegraphy, telephony and electric communications for war purposes. He brought the south coast of Cuba within five minutes of the White
