The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-09-11
mance-Wil 1t End I'm Tragedy


ished Chapter OF the Great lee Ro-
mance-Win 1t End I'm Tragedys
Whatever good fortune may interpose to
rescue those members of Captain Hall s expe-
dition to the Arctic Ocean who remained with
Buddington when Tyson's party were car
ried away on the ice-foe, it is at least
certain that the expedition itself is
dismally ended. The startling kilograms
from st. Johns, Newfoundland, which our
special correspondent with the Search Expedi-
ton sends to the HERALD, will be found to
throw some welcome light on the awful
catastrophe, whose details, 80 far as known,
have moved the commiseration of the civil
lied world. On the Gath of August, 1871, the
gallant explorer, G. F. Hall, put post
| script to the last letter he was ever
to write, and dated it from Tessui-
SAX, the last outpost of civilization,
on the ice-bound shores of Northern Green
land "God be with u.s." were his last words,
and, as his trusted vessel steams cautiously out
through the fog and mist into the frozen king
dom of the Pole, q fitting picture can be con-
| jured of the gloomy outlook for this arctic
argosy. 1t is fresh in the public mind how
the indomitable Hall calamity sailed his little
ship up through Smiths Sound, Kennedy Chan
mel and into Robson Channel, where q point
was reached that will bear his name in all
future time, although the waves wash and the
icebergs roll over it, 1t is a small pin-point
on the maps latitude 80 deg. 16 min. north,
longitude 81 deg. west), but it is all that
science has to show in exchange for the brave
mans life, that went out so sadly in the polar
gloom of the November following. Never,
indeed, did an expedition have greater need of
q saving Power-of one mighJier than man.
The scene around the dead commanders icy
grave, with ships lantern in o sailors hand
held up to east glimmer on the book Of
prayer, and a feeble ray upon the bowed white
faces around, is fifty emblematic of what was
to follow. The ice commences to drift and
with it the ship She is in danger, and prepa-
nations are made to abandon her. Then the
nineteen souls upon the ice are hurried away
from the ship amid the warning of the ele-
ments. Sounding waves, crashing, crunching
ice, roaring winds and utter darkness envelop-
ing nineteen souls upon the moving foe are
surroundings to compel the bravest to despair.
To give the situation its master touch of bit
terness, during the brief day that follows they
see the Polaris steaming away from them. Yet
through six months these nineteen souls lived
on. The great pack of ice, miles wide at first,
was dwindling down until it seemed that death
should creep upon them as the waters rotted
the ice by piecemeal And then they were
saved. Was it not the sturdy old mariners
prayer as he steamed out in the mist and fog
that was heard-"God be with us?" We
have gone over the first two chapters in this
thrilling story in few words, that all its bear
ings may be before the reader of the third-the
search so generously instituted by the govern
ment for those whom the party on the icefoe
regarded as saved when they had given them
selves up for lost.
Elsewhere the story is told with simplicity
and directness. We cannot, unfortunately,
say that success has crowned the efforts of the
expedition, nor can we decide fully as to
whether the best has been done to secure sue
cess The veil of the Arctic mystery is Lifted
cornerwise once more, and we catch
a momentary glimpse of the white waits
of the Polaris, and then the gloom
encircles them again. On the mainland, near
Littleton Island latitude Is deg % min.
north) Commander Greer, of the Tigress, dis
covered. on the 14th of August the house
where Captain Buddington and his party win
tered, and whence they had started for the
south in two canvas-covered boats, made from
| the ship two months before. The ship was
| gone, sunk in nine fathoms of water,
and with an iceberg grounded upon
her-lost indeed. The Tigress stayed
off this place only five hours, during
which three short visits were made to q spot
where so much might have been learned of
how the winter had been passed and what the
plans and prospects of the fourteen castaways
were when they went away in their canvas
covered boats to Ponds Bay or Cape York.
The Esqumaux who had lived with the party
through the winter begged to be taken aboard,
but Commander Greer refused with what must
seem for the present strange want of
humanity. If he purposed Immediately con-
tinuing the search, acting on the clew he
had obtained, there might be some excuse
apparent; but five days afterwards the
Tigress was lying to in the harbor of
Uppernavik The insufhciency of the inquiry
at the Polaris camp, the failure to follow
up the clew at once, and the fact of
leaving nine human beings, who had no boats
and little provisions, to perish, seem
strange proceedings in position where the
best qualities of head and heart are called for
Buddington and his party are lost once more
in the Arctic wastes, and the expedition that
costs thousands of dollars and risks scores of
lives satisfies itself with search for records
that lasts not three score minutes. Two months,
with barely what provisions could be carried
in their boats leave very little hope that the