3 66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and thus he was enabled to live with comparative comfort in that high 

 latitude. The deserters returned, in great distress, December 12th 

 the thermometer being then 50 below zero. The entire party aban- 

 doned the ship May 20, 1855, and set out on their long journey home- 

 ward. They reached New York October 11th. 



Dr. Hayes was with Kane in his second voyage, and in 1860 com- 

 manded an expedition himself, intending to reach the pole. He took 

 up his winter-quarters at Port Foulke, in Smith's Sound, and pene- 

 trated as far north as 82 45' on sledges. Dr. Hayes again visited 

 Greenland in the following year, but restricted his labors to the sur- 

 vey of the southern coasts of the peninsula. 



The last great polar expedition, which has just closed so eventfully, 

 was in command of Captain Charles Francis Hall, who was born in 

 Cincinnati in 1825. He was apprenticed in early life to a blacksmith, 

 and worked for a time at his trade. He was a man of vigorous and ro- 

 bust development, of courteous and agreeable manners, and, although 

 without a regular scientific education, he had an acute and practical 

 mind. Without having studied the science of navigation, he took to 

 it with enthusiasm, and by tact and experience became a competent 

 commander. In his first voyage (1860) he spent two years and three 

 months in the arctic regions. He went out again in 1864, and stayed 

 five years, and then fully ascertained the time and places where the 

 Franklin company had perished. His last expedition was fitted out 

 by the United States Government, and he sailed from New York June 

 29, 1871, in the ship Polaris, his object being to find the north-pole. 

 She took supplies from the United States ship Congress at Disco, in 

 Greenland, and in August Captain Hall bade adieu to civilization at 

 Tussisack, and pushed on toward the pole, while for nearly two years 

 nothing was heard from him. A portion of the crew have now re- 

 turned, from whom we learn that the ship reached latitude 82 16', but 

 put back and took up winter-quarters in latitude 81 38', and there she 

 was frozen up. On October 10th Captain Hall started on an expedi- 

 tion north, with sledges drawn by Esquimaux dogs, and accompanied 

 by the mate and two Esquimaux. The party was absent two weeks, 

 and returned to the ship on October 24th. Captain Hall was immedi- 

 ately taken sick, and, after fifteen days' illness, he died November 8, 

 1871. The following year, on August 12th, the Polaris left winter- 

 quarters, got on her beam ends on the 15th of the same month, and was 

 driven south to latitude 77 35', when, owing to the heavy pressure of 

 the ice, the vessel was thrown up, and while landing stores broke from 

 her moorings October 15th, with a part of the crew, and drifted away. 

 The party remaining on the ice consisted of 19 persons, five of whom 

 were women and children. They had two boats, and a stock of pro- 

 visions sufficient for a month, which, by short rations, they determined 

 to make last for five months. One of the boats was used for fuel, and 

 there were no materials for fire. Snow-huts were erected on the ice- 



