xii Prelimiuary Chapter. 



Department purchased from liis family/for the sum of $15,000, the 

 manuscripts of his several explorations, some of which were made use 

 of 1»\- the late Admiral Davis in preparing for the Department the 

 widelv-appreciated " Narrative of the North Polar Expedition."* The 

 hirger number of the manuscripts, however, have been found to belong 

 t<» the Second Expedition, and form the basis of the Narrative now 

 prepared by the orders of the Department, to meet the call of the 

 Senate in the resolution adopted, on the motion of Hon. A. A. Sargent, 

 February 6, 1877. 



llaU's journals and notes of the years 18(i4 to 1869, kept gen- 

 erally with much care, present a few blanks; chiefly because an un- 

 broken diary was made impossible by the privations of an ill-furnished 

 Arctic life His private coiTespondence, courteously loaned by his 

 steadfast fiiend, Mr. J. C. Brevoort, and by the family of the late 

 Mr. Henry Grinnell, supplements in part these deficiencies. It dis- 

 closes also repulses experienced while seeking assistance for this sec- 

 ond voyage which must have severely schooled his energies. 



His three enterprises had a common object in geographical dis- 

 covery. The Polaris voyage, however, finds its distinctive separation 

 fr(»ni Ills cirlicr objects in its aiming at solving the problem of the 

 Pole. Ill tiiis p(»iiiT, and in its being in the fullest sense an exjDedition, 

 and not tlie itinerary of a traveler with a few native attendants, it 

 claims a iiiiicli lii^ilicr jilacc than the Narrative now presented. 



I'.ut tli<.' journals of the years isiM-'GiJ exhibit a longer experience 

 l.y .Mr. Hall in Arctic life, and consequently with the customs, traditions, 

 and superstitions of the Innuits than has fallen to the lot of other Arctic 



'V\\v thinl <<litioii of tliis Xarrativ.- was ord.Tcd l.y Congress June 7, 1878, to bo on sale 

 under tin- iiroviMiotiH of the act of thai date. This edition is exhausted. 



