WASHINGTON LAND TO HALL LAND 



But how barren and desolate was all the country one could 

 survey from this point ! In no place could one find the 

 slightest sign of vegetation ; everything was sand and pebbles, 

 monotonous and bleak. We had been hoping for a hunt 

 before we parted with the last two pack-sledges, but this hope 

 seemed to be sheer vanity. 



A short distance from the clay bank we found Hall's Grave, 

 easily distinguished at a distance by the copper plate between 

 two wooden pillars which Nares' Expedition had erected in 

 front of it, this great Polar expedition which visited the same 

 regions four years after Hall's death. The inscription on the 

 plate is as follows : 



SACRED TO THE MEMORY OP 



CAPTAIN C. F. HALL, 



OF THE U.S. SHIP " POLARIS," 

 WHO SACRIFICED HIS LIFE IN 

 THE ADVANCEMENT OP SCIENCE 



ON NOVBR. 8TH, 1871. 



THIS TABLET HAS BEEN ERECTED 



BY THE BRITISH POLAR EXPEDITION 



OF 1875, 



WHO FOLLOWING IN HIS FOOTSTEPS 



HAVE PROFITED BY HIS 



EXPERIENCE. 



A bear had paid a visit to the grave a short time previously 

 and tried to destroy the monument ; some of the wood was 

 splintered, but the stout pillars which supported the plate had 

 resisted the attack. The marks of the animal's teeth were 

 plain. 



A short distance away we found two more graves. The 

 inscription on one of them had been made on a wooden plate 

 and was now illegible ; but on the other it is scratched on to a 

 flat limestone, which, however, has been broken by a bear. 

 One can merely decipher the word Discovery, but this is suffi- 

 cient to show that it is one of Beaumont's men who sleeps his 

 last sleep here. 



75 



