HALL, BASIL (1788-1844), British naval officer and travel ler, was born at Edinburgh on Dec. 31, 1788, the son of Sir James Hall of Dunglass, the geologist. Basil entered the navy in 1802, and in 1817 became post-captain. His cruise in the sloop "Lyra" in 1816 with Lord Amherst's embassy, to China is de scribed in An Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea and the Great Loochoo Island in the Japan Sea (1818) . In 1824 he published Extracts from a Journal written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru and Mexico, in the Years 1820-21-22, and in 1829 Travels in North America in the Years 1827 and 1828. His Fragments of Voyages and Travels (9 vols.) appeared in three detachments between 1831 and 184o. He died in Haslar hospital, Portsmouth, on Sept. II,