432 Puhlic Tributes to Hall. 



felt. It was, indeed, the disappointment produced by the obstacles 

 thrown in his way on his third Expedition, which probably caused his 

 death on the Polaris in Xovember, 1871." With this estimate, delib- 

 erately formed by Mr. Brevoort, of Brooklyn, from personal and close 

 acquaintance, the judgments of a number of other friends have been 

 found to coincide. In preparing- this Narrative they have been the 

 more willingly received in the lack of all personal acquaintance with 

 Hall. 



Official and public acknowledgments of Hall's worth have freely 

 appeared — in the language of the National Academy of Sciences before 

 quoted, in the appointment conferred on him by the Executive of the 

 United States in 1871, in the award of the gold medal made by the 

 Paris Geographical Society in 187(),^ and in the courteous tributes paid 

 at his grave by the late English Arctic Expedition under Captain 

 Nares. 



The extreme discomforts, exposures, and labors incident to a 

 residence among the Eskimos were not unforeseen when he entered 

 on even his first Expedition ; and his experience then must have led 

 him to anticipate that greater trials would be his lot on a second and 

 longer banishment from civilized life. ]jut he avowed, as has been 

 seen, a v.illingness to remain out for a term of even ten years, if this 

 should pi'ove a necessity. He must have felt that he could trust his 

 two Eskimo friends throughout a protracted stay in a country in which 

 they would find themselves among their own race, and yet it is surpris- 

 ing that, even with their unchanging help, he could control unharmed 

 so many of the Innuits, subordinate their chief, Oii-e-la, to his purposes, 

 and, with such slender resources, secure the success he attained. His 



T'or n facsimile of this medal and a translation of the report made by Mr. V. A. Maltc 

 Brim to the Socidtd de Geograpliic of Paris, avIu. conferred it, sec ('hni)ter XXV of the "Narra- 

 tive of the North Polar Expedition of 1H71." 



