Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-16
THREE BODIES TELL
TRAGEDY OF NORTH
Veteran Explorer and Young
Nephews Dead of Starvation
Near Hudson Bay.
By ID. b. ROGERS.

Special Dispatch to The Star and the North
American Newspaper Alliance.
TORONTO, Ontario, August To-
Three bodies found in a lonely log
cabin in the Thelon River district, west
of Hudson Bay. have revived one OF
the unsolyed mysteries of Arctic ex-
ploration
A wireless message received at Otta-
wa, headquarters of the royal Canadian
mounted police. from staff Sergt. M. A.
Joyce, stationed at Chesterfield Inlet,
states the bodies have been identified
as those of John Hornby. well known
English Arctic explorer. and his two
nephews The message indicates little
information regarding the circumstances
attending the deaths is available. but
the cause of death lis attributed to
starvation
John Hornby was one of the pictur
esque figures of the North Country. A
wanderer and explorer by nature. he
had spent 20 years of his life in the
vicinity of Hudson Bay, often isolating
himself from civilization for years.
Returned From England.
Two years ago he decided he was
getting too old to defy the rigors OF
the North any more and he retired to
his native England. He did not remain
there long. however, for the call Of the
Arctic soon lured him. He took his two
nephews, both boys under 20, that they
might serve their apprenticeship in
that school of adventure to which he
had devoted his life.
The three men entered the Hudson
Bay country by way of the Great Slave
Lake and were last heard of in the
game sanctuary between the lake and
Chesterfield Inlet.
In June, 1926, the party started out
TO cross the sanctuary by canoe from
the Great Slave Lake to Chesterfield
Inlet. They were planning to reach
the r. G. NJ. P. outpost before Winter
set in, for they took no dogs with them
But by the Winter of 1927 they had
not reached their destination
Mounted police patrols were then
cautioned TO keep lookout for Hornby
and his nephews, but they were not
seen during the Winter. Indians had
seen them in the Fall of 1926, and o
trapper who arrived in Edmonton in
the Summer Of 1927 confirmed the in
formation given by the redmen.
Note i'm Cabin.
Later in the same Summer a trapper
brought word Of a note he had found
In an abandoned cabin on the banks Of
the Casna River. 1t was signed py
Hornby and read:
fat buck caribou Hope TO see you
down the Hanbury this Winter"
The Hanbury River empties into the
Chesterfield Inlet
Various search parties went out IN
an endeayor 10 locate Hornby after it
became apparent that some mishap
had befallen him and the boys. An ex-
p!orer by the name Of Hoare. who went
! UP into the game sanctuary to study
animal life there had been instructed
! 10 keep a strict lookout for the party
| this Summer. and Maj. Burwash. ex-
! pioring even farther north, was also on
/ the lookout The Porglid brothers. ex-
! pIoring in the same district this Sum-
/ nner. reported they had failed TO find
! any trace Of the missing men,
Hornby's last trip before the fatal ex-
petition was with Capt Critchell Bull
/ lock, another famous English explorer
| Of the Arctic, and was conducted into
! the same game sanctuary,
/ fCopyrlgtt, 1923, by North American News
paper Alliance