Brooklyn Eagle, Wednesday, December 28, 1870, p. 2, col. 6

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

The Wonders of the North—How to Reach the Pole—Is It Land or Water?

Last evening, before the Long Island Historical Society, at the chapel of the Packer Institute, Captain C. F. Hall, the Arctic explorer, lectured to a large and appreciative audience upon his experiences in the Arctic regions, and the plan he proposes to adopt in the expedition which is to start under his command with the intention of reaching the NORTH POLE.

The lecture was illustrated with a large chart of that section of the American continent bordering on the frozen seas, to which frequent reference was made by the lecturer, as he proceeded with his remarks.

He began by saying that he was A SLEDGE DRIVER rather than a professional lecturer, and that his audience must bear with him on that account. His home was in the arctic regions, and he believed that he was to point out the way to the North Pole, that he was born to do it, and endeavoring to do so he was ready to die.

He referred to his having left this country several years ago to try and ascertain whether any of the survivors of Sir John Franklin’s expedition were to be found among the Esquimaux. For nearly eleven years he had pursued that idea, and until a late period he had believed that he would ultimately save some or one of Sir John’s men, but in his last voyage on reaching King William’s Land, he there learned from the Esquimaux that they had seen some of Sir John’s men, as they escaped down the southwest coast, and gained the information that there was NO LONGER ANY HOPE of finding any of them.

The Esquimaux had taken him to the remains of some of the ill-fated pioneer explorers. He also visited the wreck of one of the vessels which Franklin took with him—either the Erebus or the Terror—and brought away a quantity of relics, consisting of silver plate, forks, knives and spoons. When Lady Franklin visited him in Cincinnati last Fall, he showed her these relics. She examined them very intently, and laid some that bore a peculiar crest away by themselves. The crest was an eagle’s head, with laurel branches on each side. As she examined these she seemed much affected. At length he asked her to whom they belonged. She replied: “That is plate I purchased for Sir John a few days before he sailed and I got that crest of our family engraved upon it.” He also had plate of the Crozier family, as identified by the crest that was engraved upon it. He also brought home other relics, proving conclusively that the wreck he found was a vessel of the British Navy.

He considered that the men of that expedition had really fallen VICTIMS TO SCURVY, caused by the consumption of food not suitable to the climate, and instanced his own perfect health while in the Northern regions, which he said was the result of living precisely as the Esquimaux did, eating raw meat and sipping train oil. He said that so rapid was the waste of animal heat that he has eaten fifteen pounds of raw meat in a day, and in the same time drank two quarts and a half of oil. But for this he could never have endured the privations he had undergone. The North had been to him only a training school for the great work upon which he was to set forth. Franklin’s men, to the number of 105, landed in 1848 upon Point Victory, and in less than three years, according to the accounts of the natives, hardly a man survived. The last man who did survive was Crozier, the second in command, and who died from starvation near Chesterfield Inlet, the natives having refused to help him. He had his double-barrelled gun but his ammunition was all gone. Some of the natives say that he was SHOT BY THE ESQUIMAUX. Had he pursued his travels a week longer he would have arrived at Fort Churchill, one of the Hudson Bay trading posts. But like many others, he lost his life through the cruelty and selfishness of the Esquimaux of that region.

He had undertaken the expedition from which he returned in 1869 to satisfy himself and a few friends, among them the President of the Society and Mr. Henry Grinnell, with regard to the probability of finding others of the party. He thought there was no longer any chance of finding one of them. Yet there ought to be. There is no mistake but that some of his men ought to be found among the Esquimaux, and would have been found yet had it not been for the evil disposition of the natives on King William’s Land and on Boothia Felix peninsula.

FRANKLIN’S OBJECT was to determine whether the waters of the North Atlantic were connected with the waters of the North Pacific, and the position where the remains of the expedition were found is positive proof that they were the real discoverers of the fact that the waters of the North Atlantic did find their way to the Pacific through Behring’s Straits.

Captain Hall then referred to the fact that in the Spring of 1871 he will bid a short adieu to the United States, determined that before his hearers saw him again he would put his foot down on the pole, and have the North Star directly over his head. He spoke of the difficulty of procuring a suitable vessel in which to go, but intimated that he would take two, one of them a small steamer of the Navy, the other a Newfoundland-built vessel, expressly adapted for navigation in the ice-filled waters of the far north.

After going as far as possible through Davis’ Straits and Jones’ Straits, with the vessels, he proposed to start with the dogs and sledges and make an effort to reach the pole. From the descriptions of the natives he felt convinced that there was land there. If such was the fact, it would be easy to take exact observations, which would be unattainable if the pole was covered by water, when observations would have to be taken from the deck of a vessel. He also described the appearance the heavens would present, how the night would be six months long, how on the 23d of March the sun would appear above the horizon and slowly sweep around in a spiral until he had reached an attitude of 23½ degrees, and then he would as slowly wind back again down to and below the horizon, which he would reach on the 23d of September, which would be the end of the six months’ day. There will be no north, no east, no west, there it will be all South. There will be no means of verifying the accuracy of the chronometers, for it will be always noon, and no observations for time can be made. But there will be the satisfaction and the glory of DISCOVERING THE POLE, and of standing where no white man has ever stood before. This he expected to do in the winter of 1872. He would endeavor to reach 80 degrees latitude, when there would remain a six hundred mile journey to be performed with the aid of the dogs and sledges. To do all this he supposed would occupy about thirty months, but if necessary he proposed to be about for five years, and on his return he hoped to be able to tell the story of that mysterious region.

He referred to the explorations of Sir Martin Frobisher, who, in 1576, 1577 and 1578, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, made a voyage in the waters of Baffin’s Bay and Davis’s Straits, and, as he believed, discovered a strait which has since been shown to be a bay. He also spoke of discovering relics which he believed were the remains of that expedition, and which were now in the possession of the Historical Society of London. He also gave a number of interesting descriptions of life in the snow regions, and depicted the pleasures and the perils of travelling there, of the manner of building sledges and snow huts, and other details of interest.

The lecture lasted nearly two hours, and Captain Hall was frequently interrupted with applause, the audience showing a deep interest in the lecture. At the close the customary vote of thanks was made, and the audience then dispersed.

Citation: Brooklyn Eagle, “The Undiscovered Country,” Wednesday, December 28, 1870, p. 2, col. 6. Source: newspapers.com image 50437382.