EXPLORERS FOUND DEAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 785, 4 October 1929, Page 9

EXPLORERS FOUND DEAD

TRAGEDY IN CANADIAN HINTERLAND SCOTT’S FATE RECALLED Australian and "N.Z. Press Association LONDON, Wednesday. Sympathetic interest has been aroused by messages from Canada which throw fresh light on the tragic fate of three English explorers— Messrs. Hornby (son of the Lancashire cricketer, A. H. Hornby), Christian, and Adlard. The men perished in the Canadian hinterland in circumstances which recall the fate of Captain Scott. Mr. Adlard’s father, who is the head of a London printing firm, has just received from Ottawa a letter found with the bodies of the’three men in a hut. It had been addressed to him by his son. This letter, however, was written in August, 1926, when the explorers were hopeful of success, and it throws no light on the final tragedy. Canon Armistead, one of the executors of Mr. Hornby’s estate, says the latter died in April, 1927; Adlard died in May; and Christian a month later. This was gathered from Christian’s diary. According to that document, Christian’s companions died in the hut. As they had left him alone with a dwindling supply of food, he must have put their bodies outside, and died himself a few -weeks later. By the next steamer from Canada, Canon Armistead expects the few tilings found in the hut, such as Hornby’s will, trophies, and two chapters of a book he was writing. Christian’s diary has been sent to China, where his father is stationed.