Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1873-05-16
The LAST Z. S. Arctic Expedition.


Der of Arctic enterprises which have iaiiee
of their main object, though all have aduec
more or less to the sum Of human knowi
edge. Capt. Hall was Cincinnati man. IL
his earlier years blacksmith, and then tint
editor ola paper. He took strong interest,"
in Arctic explorations, "a nd became strongly
impressed with the idea hat their repeated
, failures were due to the fact that the ex
plorers kept up the food and habits OF CIVIL
ization. If they would eat and 1--we as &c
the Esquimaux, he believed they would sur
yiye as well the rigors of the polar climate
He tested this in his own person, In loooi
when he accompanied, alone. New London
whaling vessel to the Arctic regions, pushed
off from i. with only Esquimaux as COM
panions in various directions, tried Esqul-
maux life. learned their language, and in one
of his journeys found distinct traces oil
Frobisher's expedition, which sailed 800
years ago The long preservation oil these
relics convinced him that it would be cen
turtles before all trace of Sir John Franklin
expedition would disappear. In lo64, ne
went again, to secure such intelligence as
he could of Sir John Franklin. He was
gone for fire years, during which he lived
among the Esquimaux, prosecuting his re-
searches overland, in sledges, and came back
in 1869 witha store Intelligence of the lost
English yoyagers. He had ascertained the
localities where the different parties
persisted. learned where their ships were,
where they abandoned them; found the
graves of many, and brought back over 100
relics, including watches, trinkets, firearms
and tools, most of them collected among the
| Esquimaux. He returned in the full con-
yiction that he had determined the lochllty
in which Sir John Franklin's records were
in all probability deposited, and intended at
some future day to go again to find them.
In 1871 he induced the government to lit
ost the steamer Polaris, of 400 tons, to ex-
plore, by way of Smiths SouLd, the polar
sea discovered by Kane and Hayes,
and to push sledge parties toward the
Pole, over the ice fields, if he found
his way blocked by ice. The account of
Capt. Tyson, shows that he took the
steamer farther north than any vessel had
ever gone before; but he got no nearer the
pole than So l6 This was exceeded in 1927
by Parry, who pushed sledge expedition
north from Spitzbergen to $40 and by DR..
Hayes, who reached the same latitude by
way of Smiths Sound in 1861. Among the
prominent members of Capt. Halls expedi-
tion were DR.. Emil Bessel, Chief Of the
Scientific Corps, graduate of Heidelberg
University, 5. o. Buddington, the sailing
master, mariner of twenty years expert
ence, who commanded the whale ship in
which Hall made his first polar Journey,
and William Morton, second officer, who
was with Kane, and was the first man who
discovered the open Polar sea. Among the
rescued are II. {. Tyson, assistant nayiga-
tor Frederick Meyer, meteorolOgist; John
Heron, steward; six seamen and the cook
Esquimaux Joe, interpreter Hannah and
child, Esquimaux; Hans Christian (of
Kane's expedition, his wife and four chill
dren, the youngest only eight months old.
We subjoin Capt. Tyson's statement, which
is full of interest:
CAPT. TYSON : STATEMENT.
The following statement was furnished by
Capt. Tyson:
. - On the cath of August, ISL, We left |
TeSsinsack, and went through Smiths !
Sound. We succeeded in getting as far |
north as latitude So. Is, when We returned |
and wintered at Polaris Bay, latitude sl.3S, |
longitude 81 A. We were frozen up until |
the fifth of September. On the 10th of 0c- |
tober, Capt. Hall started on a sledge jour |
ney north, and returned on the 24th, when |
he was taken sick and died on the sth Of /
October. lie was buried on the llth The |
attack that carried him off was laid to be
apoplexy. We passed the winter at Polaris
Bay.
On the Sth of June, 1872, we attempt
ed to reach north with two boats we
hauled our other boat on shore and ventur-
ed overland on the sth of July: we started
for home on the 18th of August, and on the
18th were beset with ice in latitude 5000
We drifted from there down TO latitude
- IS, when We encountered a heavy south
west gale, the ship being under heavy pres
sure on the night of the 18th We cOmmenc-
ed landing provisions, &c, on the ice the
vessel being reported leaking very badly at
times, we continued landing provisions for
two or three hours.
- W hen the pressure ceased | went on
board the vessel and asked the sailing mas
Ter if the vessel was making any more water
han usual; he reported that She was not ;
then went TO the pumps and ascertained |
hot an.a III
lad been doing all summer | went on the
&c again and shortly after 1t began to crack,
md in few minutes afterwards broke in
many places; the yessei broke from her {
and was soon lost TO sight in the :
darkness and storm; on the broken ice were ,
most OF our provisions to sustain the party
Trough the winter; and seeing nothing of
he vessel, we attempted to reach shore in |
lopes of finding natives to assist US in living y
trough the winter.
Getting about halfway to shore with our 1
eayily laden boats, our progress became
ard by the drifting ice, and was COM v
elled to haul on the ice again. At this
lme | succeeded in saving four cans of
emmican, eleven and a half bags of bread,
en- dozen one and two pound cans of meat T
nd soup, fourteen hams, one small bag of {,
hocoate weighing twenty pounds, some I
Il |
flies and abundant ammunition. In the Z
forming, knowing that had not proyis- 81
ms enough and other articles of food. III
othing, compasses, ETC., on the abatement :,
the gale | endeavored to shoot as MANY
ais as possible, both for food, light and d.
el, but could only get three, owing to the &C
I'd weather having set in. | supposed the n,
ind to be about southwest. On its clear
g up, found myself within about eight d
lies of what | supposed to be the east OF
asst, and about thirty or forty miles below n,
e ship. The ice being weak could not N
lnspOrt the boats and provisions to the -
nd until it grew stronger. While here | De
scovered my other boat, bread, etc., and fiji
we'd all. The ice grew firm | made III
lother attempt to reach shore, CARRYING
erything in boats and dragging them on
cir keel. The ice being exceedingly rough
stove both boats. WI
We succeeded, on the first of November. "a
getting about half way to the shore. lis
ght came on us and very stormy weather. -,
the morning the ice was broken. and we ~
re driven southwark very fast We saw lin
more land for many days, bad weather W
all through the month of az
'yember. We built snow houses and -
de ourselves as comfortable as we could JoU
c were ten white, two Esquimaux. two OH
men and five children in all. Wesuc- the
ded in killing few seals, which furnish MIA
US with light and fuel with which to r."
rm our scanty allowance of food through In
darkness of an Arctic winter. DIRE
In the latter part of February we lived he
ncipally upon birds, and in March com -,
need to catch seals. Through that month COL
supported ourselves on bears and seals bly,
h, wasting neither skin nor entrails We is q
ected enough food in this way to last its
until the middle of May, had we not Co,
n n driven to sea by strong westerly gale ~. .I'
he latter part of March, our foe piece tho
lg then reduced from five miles in cir nea
Inference to about twenty yards in dame hee
We left the piece on the first of April w
abandoned nearly all of our meat, cer'
re amount of ammunition, clothing, skins bes
other articles, taking a portion of the has
i IN the boat, which we We're ohliged To