“I landed on Long Wharf,” he continues, “and found my way into State Street. Two or three figures were moving through the thick vapors, and their solemn foot-fall broke the worse than Arctic stillness. I reached Washington Street, and walked anxiously westward. A newsboy passed me. I seized a paper, and the first thing which caught my eye was the account of the Ball’s Bluff battle, in which had fallen many of the noblest sons of Boston; and it seemed as if the very air had shrouded itself in mourning for them, and that the heavens wept tears for the city’s slain. I was wending my way to the house of a friend, but I thought it likely that he was not there. I felt like a stranger in a strange land, and yet every object which I passed was familiar. Friends, country, everything seemed swallowed up in some vast calamity, and, doubtful and irresolute, I turned back sad and dejected, and found my way on board again through the dull, dull fog.” Dr. Hayes made another journey beyond the Arctic Circle in 1869, in the _Panther_, as the guest of the artist Bradford. Over a thousand miles of the Greenland coast was visited, terminating a good way beyond the last outpost of civilization on the globe, in the midst of the much-dreaded “ice-pack” of Melville Bay. [Illustration: FROBISHER’S MAP OF META INCOGNITA] CHAPTER XIII Charles Francis Hall.—Early life.—Interest in fate of Sir John Franklin.—First journey to Greenland.—Discovery of Frobisher relics.—Experiences and study of the Eskimos.—Second journey.—Delays and disappointments.—Sledging trips.—King William’s Land at last.—Franklin relics.—Return of Hall to United States.—_Polaris_ expedition.—Reaches high northing.—Hall’s sledge journey.—Return and death.—_Polaris_ winters. No escape.—_Polaris_ is wrecked.—Part of crew adrift on the ice-floe.—Remainder build winter hut.—Final rescue and return to United States. [Sidenote: _CHARLES FRANCIS HALL_] The personality of Charles Francis Hall is singularly interesting. Born in Rochester, New Hampshire, in 1821, he received a common school education and pursued the vocation of blacksmith, journalist, stationer, and engraver. In 1850, while living in Cincinnati, Ohio, he became deeply interested in the fate of Sir John Franklin, and for over nine years made a thorough study of Arctic history and, especially, of the Franklin search expeditions. Unconvinced by the admirable report of Captain M’Clintock in 1859 of the death of Franklin and the fate of his companions, Hall maintained the opinion that survivors of the unfortunate expedition must still be living among the Eskimos, and could be found. By the aid of public subscriptions and the liberal patronage of Mr. Henry Grinnell, Hall undertook a journey, May 29, 1860, sailing from New London, on the whaler, _George Henry_, commanded by Captain S. O. Buddington.