The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-05-21

tiOn-Ano Strongo Oeush ". S~F-
Hail-Ths story Of tho Ice Floe.
Among all the saddening stories OF Arctic
exploration which darken the records of its
triumphs none will bear a more painful inter-
est than that which tells the full truth Of the
death of Captain Hall and the failure Of his
expedition. Elsewhere the details of the voy-
age of the Polaris up to her separation from
the nineteen souls upon the ice foe will be
found, as learned by our correspondent at st.
Johns, Newfoundland, from the lips of the
survivors themselves Dark as the long Polar
night is the mystery that hangs around the
brave-hearted explorers death in the icy seas.
He was man without the refining culture
of the schools; but his powers Of observation
were acute; his experience wide in the work
he had undertaken; his courage and energy
inexhaustible, and his enthusiasm in the
work he had undertaken had all the halo Of o
master passion. He had pushed his vessel
further towards the North Pole than any nav
igator had ever done before, and. as the story
now appears, was forced backward with vic
tory almost within his grasp. The Open
Polar Sea that was his dream seemed spread
ing its tumbling waters for eighty OF ninety
miles beyond the PROV of the Polaris.
Geo ,,,:lo l>a@xy
him and the Pole. If the wreathing mists
warm puffs of wind and heaving waters bore
out their promise of On unfrozen ocean still
beyond and to the north, he was within three
or four days sail of the northern end of the
axis of the earth. Under these circumstances
it was that the fears Ct Buddington, the sailing
master, prevailed on Captain Hall to go some
'<hirty-eight minutes south and Winter. That
this untoward opposition to proceeding fur
Their north was weighty disappointment
to the gallant explorer we may well
believe. The indomitable courage of the man
and the heart that he brought to his work can
be in nowise better illustrated than by his
starting in dog sledge, with his faithful
Esquimaux and one white companion, to fur
ther trace out his pathway to the Pole. Once
the ship was frozen in for the Winter he
started. This was on the 10th of October,
1871. He was absent fourteen days and
travelled fifty miles north Of the ship. Be-
yond this nothing of interest is known regard
ing this trip into the waste regions through
the Polar night He returned to his ship in
good health and spirits on the oath Of October,
and here the interest begins to deepen, until
what follows wears the grim frown of tragedy
At the best under the most heroic or the
most benefcent circumstances, the chill arms
of death must come in that desolate Ultima
Thule with no inviting clasp. The soul shrinks
backward from the melancholy thought of
dying SO far from all that man can love, with
aspirations unachieved, with no prospect in
the world save grave amid the eternal SHOWS
The conditions of Halls death show how ter
ribly even that bleak prospect can be dark
ened.' He drank some coffee and was taken
violently sick, vomiting, and lay suffering
for four days. The stories of the Esqui-
maux have significance here which cannot
be overlooked Suspicious Of those who
should be the mainstay Of his hopes, he asks
the Esquimaux if the coffee had sickened
them. 1t had not. Through the broken ex-
CARNATIONS of the two men to our correspond
ent we catch glimpses as of things ''seen
through q glass darby" Captain Hall says
that there was something bad in his coffee.
The word "poison" comes out like spectre
from the scarcely coherent phrases of the
Esquimaux. One of them tells how the man
arose and pored in painful persistency over
four medical books, and at last found the
word he wanted He pointed it out and
pronounced it but the strange word has
escaped the Esquimaux's memory. Captain
Hall grows better and stronger, but re-
lapses soon into what is described as paralysis,
suffers exceedingly, becomes delirious, insensi-
BILE, and at last dies-''went out like the snuff
of candle says Heron, the steward Bessel,
the doctor, ascribed the death to apoplexy.
The absorbing question will be how this can
tally with symptoms of the disease Sus-
picions, quarrels, open-worded or ominously
silent, distrust and dislike among those left
after Halls death, fit in ugly, ghoul-like forms