prefer to encounter their icy enemies accompanied by their wives and children. But this also had its bright side for the helpless strangers; the Eskimo women are often as brave and useful as their husbands.

On April 30th, the party abandoned the rotten and wasted floe, and embarked in their only boat, which was so heavily laden that 100 pounds of meat and nearly all the clothing were thrown out. In a few hours, however, i the boat was drawn on to the floe again, though the latter was fast going to pieces. On the 19th a sea washed over the floe, carrying away the tent, skins and bed-clothing, but fortunately none of the party. The men had to hold on to the boat all night to save it. On the 22d Hans shot a bear, which he saw coming towards him on the ice. But for this timely food, the cold, wet, unsheltered, tired out party must have perished.

At last these wretched voyagers were to experience the good providence which had, during the previous year, led them with grateful hearts to call the enforced winter quarters of the "Polaris " "Thank God Harbor," and the great ice-mountain that protected her "Providence Berg." On April 30th a steamer was seen close to the floe. It was the British steamship "Tigress," Capt. Bartlett, of Conception Bay, Newfoundland. The latitude of this fortunate rescue was 53° 35′ N., off Grady Harbor, Labrador. The whole party were landed at St. Johns, May 12th, where the U. S. Steamer "Frolic," Commander C. M. Schoonmaker, took them on board, and carried them to Washington Navy Yard, June 5th, 1873. They had drifted on the floe 190 days and 1200 miles, but “even baby was saved." The Secretary of the Navy, in his report of June 16, 1873, says: "After their rescue, although enfeebled by scanty diet and long exposure, and mentally depressed by their isolated and unhappy situation, so fearfully prolonged and of such uncertain issue, the general health of these hardy voyagers remained good, and when their trials and anxieties were ended, they soon regained their usual strength."

As to the scientific results achieved by Hall's Expeditions it is the concurrent testimony of American and transatlantic authorities, that it has contributed largely to our

geographical and ethnological knowledge of the Polar country. The Societè de Géographie of Paris, awarded Capt. Hall a gold medal, as the "promoter-in-chief of the Polaris Expedition, and as otherwise due him for his previous labors." And Capt. Sir GEORGE NARES, in his official Report to Parliament of the English Expedition of 1875, says: "The coast-line was observed to be continuous for about 30 miles, forming a bay bounded toward the west of the United States range of mountains, with mounts Mary and Julia, and Cape Joseph Henry, agreeing so well with Hall's description, that it was impossible to mistake their identity. Their bearings also, although differing upwards of 30 deg. from the published chart, agreed precisely with his original report." He further says: "But for the valuable deposits of provisions established by the "Polaris" at Hall's Rest, Lieut. Beaumont would have found the greatest difficulty in obtaining supplies."

The knowledge which Capt. Hall obtained of the language, habits, religion, pastimes, feelings and social life of the natives during his five winters in their wretched snowhuts is the most valuable we have in regard to the Eskimo race. He says in his Journal: "Nothing but an experience of years could enable me to control such untamable eagles." In all this experience, he received unfailing assistance from the friendship and constant watchfulness of Hannah and Joe. For these faithful friends he purchased a home in Groton, Conn., to which they repaired after their return from his fatal voyage in the "Polaris." Hannah died there, of consumption, a disease which afflicts the majority of her race, on Dec. 31st, 1876, aged 38. In June, 1878, Joe returned to the Arctic seas with Lieut. Schwatka, U. S. A., and remained there. The stranger who visits the cemetery at Groton, will be struck by the inscriptions on the tombstones in memory of the Eskimos who have visited or died there :-Hannah, aged 38; Kod-la-go, July 1, 1860; Ou-se-gong (Jeannie), July 1, 1867, aged 28; Tu-ke-il-ke-ta, Feb. 28, 1863, aged 18 months, (Hannah's first child, who died in New York); SYLVIA GRINNELL EBIERBING (Punna), born at Ig-loo-lik, July 1866, died March 18, 1875. The last was Joe's and Hannah's

adopted daughter, purchased for them by Hall from her parents, in 1868, by the gift of a sled.

It is time now to turn to several English and German expeditions which explored the Arctic seas during the score of years which began with McClintock's successful voyage in the "Fox" already related, and ended with Hall's disastrous search in the "Polaris."

AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EXPEDITION UNDER LIEUTS. WEYPRECHT AND PAYER-VARIOUS OTHER EXPEDITIONS FROM EUROPE.-NORDENSKIOLD.

In June, 1871, Lieuts. Weyprecht and Payer, in a small Norwegian vessel, sailed from Tromsö, Norway, into the Arctic sea to the North of Nova Zembla. They found an open ocean in which light and scattered ice was the only impediment to navigation. This expedition reached Lat. 780 41 N. Dr. Petermann, the German geographer, has stated his belief that Weyprecht and Payer actually penetrated into the open polar sea, and found the entrance of the best, if not the only water passage to the neighborhood of the Pole-that the Pole can best be reached by following the course of the Gulf Stream northward between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla-and that the warmer water of the Gulf current not only keeps the northern channel free from ice at this point, but is the cause of the open polar sea. Weyprecht and Payer, in their AustroHungarian Expedition of 1872-1874, discovered a new land about 200 miles north of Nova Zembla, to which the name Franz Joseph Land has been assigned. Its south coast lies about the 80th parallel, and it was explored by means of sledges, up to 82° 5' N., while land was seen extending as far as 83° north. The Norwegian captains Tobiesen and Mack confirmed the discovery of open water by Payer and Weyprecht. Another Norwegian, Captain Carlsen, discovered the remains of the winterquarters established 276 years before-1594-1596—at the N.E. end of Nova Zembla by the Dutch captain William Barentz, who in his third expedition in search of a north

east passage reached long. 100° E. near Icy Cape. Helve and Smyth sailed to the North of Spitzbergen and found open water even in lat. 80° 27′. An expedition fitted out by A. Rosenthal, of Bremerhaven, explored the ocean north of Siberia. An English Arctic Expedition under Capt. NARES already referred to in connection with the last voyage of HALL (who reached, through a strait which he named Robeson, 82° 16,) sailed, in 1875, through Smith Sound, and crossed the highest latitude yet attained, 830 20. In 1875, and again in 1876, Professor Nordenskiöld reached the eastern shores of the Gulf of Obi; and in July, 1878, a well-equipped Swedish expedition in the "Vega," under that veteran explorer, attempted once more the northeast passage. The party successfully rounded Cape Chelynskin, and in September were able to start from the mouths of the Lena for Bering's Strait. (For a full account of Prof. Nordenskiold's important discoveries on the north of Europe and Asia, down to 1879, see his work on the voyage of the "Vega," published in New York in 1882.*) Thus with numerous attempts to sail in opposite directions around the northern waters of Europe, Asia and America, the Arctic regions have been surveyed to within 8° of the Pole, and we are able to construct a circumpolar map with measurable correctness. The northwest and northeast passages have been both effected, but no clear way for commerce has been, or probably ever will be, discovered.

*In 1875 Capt. Allen Young, R. N., sailed in the "Pandora' for the western coast of Greenland, intending to proceed through Baffin's Bay, Lancaster Sound and Barrow Strait towards the magnetic Pole, and, if possible, to navigate through the northwest passage to the Pacific Ocean in one season. He adds: "As, in following this route, the "Pandora" would pass King William Land, it was proposed, if successful in reaching that locality in the summer season when the snow was off the land, to make a search for further records and for the fournals of the ships "Erebus" and "Terror." In Franklin Channel the "Pandora " encountered at the Roquette Islands, 140 miles from Point Victory, an impenetrable ice-pack. This defeated the prime objects of the expedition, and it soon returned to England.

EXPEDITION OF LIEUT. SCHWATKA, U. S. A., IN THE "EOTHEN," CAPT. T. F. BARRY, JUNE 19, 1878.

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Lieut. Frederick Schwatka, of the 3d U. S. Cavalry, obtaining leave of absence from regular army duty, fitted out in June, 1878, by private subscription, the steamer Eothen," commanded by Capt. T. F. Barry, with a crew of 23 men. The "Eothen " was a seaworthy vessel of 102 tons, and was made still stouter with oak planking I 1-2 inch thick her hull, and two feet thick on her stern, besides 3-4 inch of iron plating. Joe Ebierbing, who had returned from his polar expedition in the "Pandora" under Capt. Young, was a member of the party. The immediate object of Lieut. Schwatka was to search for the cairns and buried papers of Sir John Franklin's Expedition, which were rumored to exist in King William Land. The expedition sailed June 19, 1878. William H. Gilder was second in command. On the 19th of July icebergs were plentiful in lat. 59° 54′ N., long. 60° 45′ W. Aug. 17, the ship reached Whale Point, in an arm of Hudson's Bay. Here "igloos were built on shore, in lat. 63° 61 N., long. 60° 26' 15" W., where the party passed the winter to April 1, 1879. Schwatka then undertook a sledge journey of 3,251 miles, occupying eleven months. Thirteen Innuit men, women and children accompanied these sledges, which were drawn by 42 dogs, and bore of supplies, 5.000 pounds. Their course was north-northwest, over a region hitherto unvisited by white men or Innuits. May 15th, on a branch of Fish River, they came across a party of Ook-joo-liks, who gave the usual account of the missing crews. Schwatka and Gilder soon reached Back's River, and on June 4 visited a cairn on Pfeffer River, the one erected by Capt. Hall, May 12, 1869, over the bones of two of Franklin's men. Many relics were found, the most interesting, lying on a stone at the foot of an open grave, a silver medal awarded to Lieut. John Irving, third officer of the "Terror," being the second mathemat ical prize in the Royal Naval College. The skull and some bones were picked up, and afterwards sent to the relatives of Lieut. Irving in Scotland, who buried them with due honor in his native town. Before leaving Cape