170 PLEASANT WAYS IN SCIENCE. 



Kane and Hayes must have come from the Atlantic, and 

 most probably by the North Atlantic channel 



Captain Hall's expedition in the Polaris (really under 

 the command of Buddington), in 1871-72, will be probably 

 in the recollection of most of my readers. Leaving New- 

 foundland on June 29, 1871, it sailed up Smith's Sound, 

 and by the end of August had reached the 8oth parallel. 

 Thence it proceeded up Kennedy Channel, and pene- 

 trated into Robeson Channel, the northerly prolongation 

 of Kennedy Channel, and only 13 miles wide. Captain 

 Hall followed this passage as far as 82 16' north latitude, 

 reaching his extreme northerly point on September 3. 

 From it he saw "a vast expanse of open sea, which he 

 called Lincoln Sea, and beyond that another ocean or gulf ; 

 while on the west there appeared, as far as the eye could 

 reach, the contours of coast This region he called Grant 

 Land." So far as appears, there was no reason at that time 

 why the expedition should not have gone still further north, 

 the season apparently having been exceptionally open. 

 But the naval commander of the expedition, Captain Bud- 

 dington, does not seem to have had his heart in the work, 

 and, to the disappointment of Hall, the Polaris returned 

 to winter in Robeson Channel, a little beyond the 8ist 

 degree. In the same month, September, 1871, Captain 

 Hall died, under circumstances which suggested to many 

 of the crew and officers the suspicion that he had been 

 poisoned.* In the spring of 1870 the Polaris resumed 

 her course homewards. They were greatly impeded by the 

 ice. A party which got separated from those on board 

 were unfortunately unable to regain the ship, and remained 

 on an ice-field for 240 days, suffering fearfully. The ice- 

 field, like that on which the crew of the Hansa had to 

 take up their abode, drifted southwards, and was gradually 

 diminishing, when fortunately a passing steamer observed 



* Dr. Emile Bcssels was tried at New York in 1872, on the charge 

 of having poisoned Captain Hall, but was acquitted. 





