ADIEU TO CIVILIZATION. 



613 



has just been weighed, and not again will it go down till, as I 

 trust and pray, a higher, a far higher latitude has been attained than 

 ever before by civilized man. Governor El berg is about accom- 

 panying us out of the harbor and seaward. He leaves us when 

 the pilot does. He has rendered to this expedition much service, 

 and long will I remember him for his great kindness. I am 

 sure you and my country will fully appreciate the hospitality 

 and co-operation of the Danish officials in Greenland as relating 

 to our North Polar Expedition. 



" Now, at a. quarter past two, the Polaris bids adieu to the 

 civilized world. Governor Elberg leaves us, promising to take 

 these dispatches back to Upernavik, and to send them to our 

 minister at Copenhagen by the next ship, which opportunity 

 may not be till next year. God be with us ! " 



This dispatch was not forwarded from Greenland until the 

 next year; for the yearly vessel which plies between Greenland 

 and Copenhagen serving as the only regular communication be- 

 tween this desolate country and the rest of the world, had sailed 

 before it was brought back by the governor. It was almost a 

 year before it was received by the American minister at Copen- 

 hagen, and by him forwarded to our government, and thus 

 made public. 



From the ice-bound coast of Greenland, Hall had sailed to 

 the north, his hopes lighting up the future, as the aurora glori- 

 fies that frozen, ice-bound land. 



These splendidly brilliant displays, as the illustration shows, 

 fill the whole heavens, while the earth is covered with frozen 

 ice and snow. At times bright bands, red at the horizon, green 

 in their middle, and light yellow at their upper ends, shoot to 

 the zenith, filling the real desolation of the scene with an unreal 

 glory. For nearly a year after the reception of this dispatch, 

 to the public mind the future of the Polaris expedition, lit up 

 by Hall's hopeful enthusiasm, seemed as brilliant as does the 



<lreary scene of Greenland under the magical light of the aurora. 



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