32 HalVs Ahility and Industry. 



make his way as best he could to Repulse Bay and thence to Boothia 

 and King- WilHam's Land. 



His journal entry about this date, made after a series of disap- 

 pointments during the day, has the significant paragraph: "Again I 

 may say the want of luster on my habiliments precludes me from in- 

 terviews with those from whom I would gain knowledge ; not so of 

 Mr. Grinnell ; he knows I am poor, and yet he always treats me as if I 

 were rich." It may here be noted that while Hall made like honorable 

 exceptions in connection with the names of other generous friends, 

 there is evidence that his scanty means at times produced the errone- 

 ous impression on the minds of some that he was an ignorant person. 

 He felt the lack of what, he says, makes men w^orthy of respect in the 

 eyes of many. 



But although lacking in the culture that a collegiate course for 

 which he had been prepared would have conferred, Hall had the 

 advantages of a New England academic education, built upon the 

 qualities of strong common sense, industry, and perseverance, and 

 these had fitted him to grasp the subject he was pursuing. It ought 

 further to be said that the ship captain with whom he sailed on his first 

 voyage, unhesitatingly declared that he had made himself a fair navi- 

 gator on the outward course, having availed himself of what opportu- 

 nities he could command for receiving practical instruction in New 

 Xork Ijefore sailing. On his return he had presented to Mr. J. Inger- 

 soll I^owditch the corrections of a number of typographical and other 

 cnoi-s In "'I'he Navigator," which were adopted in the subsequent edi- 

 tions, in regard 1«> wliicli corrections he had replied to an inquiry from 

 Mr. (I. W. Blunt b\- s;i\ iuu" that "lie had made them while working 

 tliroiiL;li Howditcli during a winter in the igloos." For reposing con- 



