July, 1869.] Tlw Bonc of the Third Wliale Gummed. 427 



in this connection, weighed lieavily on his mind : — to attempt to reach 

 the Factory in such a frail boat as the Sylvia along a well-known 

 most treacherous coast and without even a chart of it: — Could he 

 even with a trust-worthy crew commit his notes and journals of 

 what he had acquired relative to the Franklin Expedition by five 

 years' adventurous life among a savage people to the fortune of so 

 desperate a boat voyage." As for the whalebone and musk-cattle 

 skins, his Arctic library and other things of personal value, he 

 thought it his duty to abandon them if compelled to make such a 

 voyage; the relics, manuscripts, and documents being the only things 

 of which he earnestly desired the absolute safety. 



An almost equal anxiety was found in the attempted recovery of 

 the whalebone cached the previous year. Several searches were early 

 made with probings and much labor down into the ice and snow, but 

 these were premature. On the 15th of the month a successful opening 

 was secured. The huge snow-bank over the long-covered bone had 

 yet melted only enough to expose the tips which still stood upriglit ; 

 but when recovered from its icy bed the bone was sledded overland to 

 a point opposite the usual anchorage of the whalers ; and, after many 

 days' work, Hall found that he had gummed with assistance from the 

 natives 534 slabs, weighing nearly 800 pounds. On the sale of this and 

 of some of his musk-ox skins he depended for the payment of such 

 costs of the expedition as were not yet provided for, especially for the 

 payment of the sums due to the four white men of his party of 1868. 



And now the final relief for all anxieties appeared even earlier than 

 he had looked for its coming. On sighting the Ansell Gibbs, of New 

 Bedford, August 5th, he entered in his journal, "It is now certain 

 I shall not be obliged to make the dangerous boat journey to York 



