9 2 EARLY LIFE AND EXPERIENCES OF DR. COOK 



are especially concerned. Between his various exploring trips he 

 established himself as a physician in the Williamsburg section of 

 Brooklyn, where his energy and ability won him a fair measure of 

 success in his practice. In 1902, after his return from Greenland, 

 he married again, his second wife being Mrs. Marion F. H. Hunt, 

 the widow of a well-known and wealthy Philadelphia physician and 

 surgeon. Mrs. Cook had at the time of her second marriage a child 

 named Ruth, and it is stated that her acquaintance with Dr. Cook 

 began in his being called in to prescribe for some sickness of the 

 child. His family now includes a second daughter, Helen, who was 

 four years old at the time of his great exploit. 



His life after this period was one of intermittent practice as a 

 physician and voyages to the Arctic and Antarctic seas, with two 

 adventurous efforts at mountain climbing in Alaska. The details 

 of these will be given later, and it need only be said here that his 

 1907 expedition to the north polar region was undertaken with no 

 public knowledge that it was intended as other than a hunting excur- 

 sion, he going as surgeon on an Arctic trip in search of big game 

 conducted by John R. Bradley, a New York capitalist. 



It has been stated that no one, not even his wife, knew that he 

 had any thought at the time of making a dash for the Pole, but this 

 statement is largely conjectural and probably has no foundation in 

 fact. The preparations made by Mr. Bradley for the expedition 

 indicated that something more than ordinary hunting was in view 

 and certainly suggested that the North Pole was the big game at 

 which Cook was aiming. Though this was not widely known in 

 1907, it certainly was in 1908, when Mr. Bradley returned, leaving 

 his surgeon in the Arctic. That Cook had left Etah to cross Elles- 

 mere Land was then well known, and that he had an attempt to 

 reach the Pole in view had become a matter of common speculation. 

 The details of this notable expedition will be given in a later chapter. 



