Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/527

* HALL. 475 HALL. HALL, Asaph ( 1820— ). An American as- tiouomer, born of Revolutionary stock in (jio.slien, Conn. At sixteen he became a carpenter, but spent his spare time in study. In 1854 lie went to Central College, JlcGrawville, N. Y.. and in spite of poor teaching, learned some mathematics in the year and a half he spent there. He studied under 13runnov at Ann Arbor, where he made his first acquaintance with astronomy, and in 1857 went to Cambridge as assistant to Professor Bond at the pitiful .salary of three dollars a week. He studied mathematics and German by himself, and gradually advanced until he earned $0U a year at the Cambridge Observatory. In 1862 he took a civil-service examination and became an aid. and a year afterwards professor of mathe- matics in the United States Xaval Observatory. This position he held until 1891 and was sent on several expeditions: in 1809 to Bering Strait, in 1870 to Sicily to observe eclipses: in 1874 to Vladivostok to observe the transit of Venus : to Texas in 1882 for the same purpose; and to Colo- rado in 1878 on a solar-eclipse expedition. His greatest fame came from his discovery in 1877 of the two satellites of liars, which he called Deiraos and Phobos. In recognition of this dis- covery he received a gold medal from the Royal Astronomical Society, and the award of the La- lande prize from the Paris Academy. In 1875 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and afterwards was elected its presi- dent. He retired from the Government employ in 1891. and four years later went to Harvard as professor of astronomy, Ahere lie remained until 1901. In 1902 he was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. HALL, Ba.sil (1788-1844). A British naval officer, author, and traveler, born and educated in Edinburgh. He entered the navy in 1802. saw- service on the coasts of China. India, and South America, was made post-captain in 1817. and left the na-i-y in 1823. The rest of his life was spent in travel, and scientifie pursuits at home. The descriptions of his various voyages while in the na and of his subsequent travels, show a broad and keen observation and were well re- ceived, though his Travels in North Amrrica caused great indignation and met with mueli hos- tile criticism in the United States. Tiecause of his outspoken remarks upon American customs. His scientific work was mostly confined to personal experimentation, and was of little permanent value, though he was a member of many scien- tific societies and contributed widely to their journals. In 1842 his mental powers failed, and he died in confinement two years later. His most important writings are: A Voi/acje In the Went Const of Corea and the Great Loo- Choo Island (1818); Extracts from a Jonrnnl Written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and ^fcxi- co (1824): Travels in Iforlh Anierira (1829); Frapment-s of Voj/affes and Travels (1S31); fiehlnss Uainfeld, cyr a Winter in Lnirer Stpria (1830) : iS'poiH and the fieat of War in Spain (18.37) : and Patchivork (1841). HALL, Charles CXtthbert ( IS52— ). An American clergyman of the Presbyterian Church, horn in Xew York City. He was educated at Williams College, the Union Theological Semi- nary, the Presbyterian College in London, and the Edinburgh Free Church College ; was ordained in 1875, and succeeded Wendell Prime as pastor Vol. IX.— 31. of the Union Presbyterian Church of Newburg, X. V. Two years afterwards he lieeame pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, N. Y. Qtiali/ications for Ministerial Power (1894) was Dr. Hall's Carew lectures at Hart- ford Theological Seminary. A trustee of Atlanta University and of Williams College, and long a director of Lnion Theological Seminary, he was ciiosen president of the la.st-named institution in 1897. Dr. Hall compiled with Lasar The Evan- ficlical Hymnal. HALL, Charles Fkancis (1821-71). An American Arctic explorer. He was bom at Roch- ester. X^. H., and was for a time a blacksmith, and later became a stationer and journalist. Jn 1800 he sailed from Xew London in the Oeorr/c Henry, to discover the remains of the Franklin party, the expense of the expedition being borne largely by Henry Grinnell (q.v.). His ship was blocked by ice, and for two years he lived among the Eskimos near Frobisher Bay, returning in 1862. In 1864 he published an account of the expedition in Arctic Researches and in Life Among the Esquimaux. In the same year 11* U returned to the Arctic to renew his search for evidences of the fate of the Franklin expedition. It was not till the spring of 1866 that he met Eskimos at Cape Weyton, south of Boothia Felix, who had seen Franklin and visited the deserted ships. He obtained from them silver bearing the crest of Franklin and other officers of the party. While searching for further evidence he did some interesting geographical work liy filling in the gap between Rae's farthest (18-fO) and Parry's farthest, in Fury Strait (1825), thus completing the mapping of the north coast of the continent. At last, after five years of toil, he met natives near the south shore of King William Land, in the summer of 1869. who gave him personal or traditional information of the fate of 79 of the 105 men who died of starvation in King William Land. It is now believed that the remaining 26 reached the coast of the mainland and perished. It was thus McClintock, Hall, and Sehwatka and Gilder who solved the fate of the Franklin party. His last expedition was undertaken in 1871, at the expense of the United States Government, in the small naval ves.sel Polaris, which ji roved to be unfitted for Arctic work. He ascended the Smith Sound channels into the Polar Sea to 82° 11' N.. the mo.st northern point attained up to that time by a vessel. Unable to proceed farther, the expedition spent the winter of 1871- 72 at Thank God Harbor, on the Greenland coast. In the fall Hall made a sledge journey north tn Cape Brevoort, and was the first to see the land on the west side of Robeson Channel and to de- termine approximately its extension to the north. Upon returning from this journey he was taken violently ill, and died on Xovember 8. 1871. In the fall of 1872 the Polaris pushed into an im- passable ice pack and drifted south for two months, when a terrible gale broke up the pack and nearly destroyed the vessel. A part of the supplies had been removed to the ice. on which 19 of the crew had taken refuge, and they were carried away from the vessel in the darkness. After experiencing all the horrors of a five months' winter drift on an ice-floe, they were picked up. off Labrador. 1300 miles from the point of separation, with 20 in the party, the Eskimo Hannah having given birth to a girl.