ii2 BRADLEY' S ACCOUNT OF THE COOK EXPEDITION 



Mr. Bradley has given a detailed account of his connection with 

 the expedition and his reasons for taking part in it. A member of 

 the Explorers' Club, of which Dr. Cook for one term was president, 

 their acquaintance had ripened into friendship. Himself fond of 

 travel and discovery, Mr. Bradley was familiar with Cook's record 

 on the "Belgica" and his ascent of Mt. McKinley, and looked upon 

 him as a well-seasoned explorer, full of resources, courage on critical 

 occasions, confidence in his own powers, yet with the saving grace of 

 caution and circumspection in emergencies. He was impressed by 

 him as a reliable man, in no sense a dreamer, but one with the spirit 

 of a practical scientist and one preferring to do things before 

 speaking of them. 



Bradley had been a hunter in the temperate and torrid zones 

 and had a desire to add to his experiences some acquaintance with 

 hunting in the frigid zone, where the polar bear offered the kind of 

 fighting game he sought for. He had it in view to write a book to 

 be entitled, "Hunting Big Game from the Arctic to the Equator," 1 

 and the Arctic section of it needed to be completed. In December, 

 1906, on his return from a hunting trip to Asia, he said to Dr. Cook: 

 "My next will be the Arctic." In the spring of 1907 he decided to 

 go that year and invited Dr. Cook to accompany him as his guest, 

 he to shoot bear and walrus and Cook to photograph the Eskimos. 

 Nothing was said then about exploration, polar or otherwise, though 

 it was not long before that came up as a possible outcome of the trip. 



The plan made, the obtaining of a suitable vessel came next. 

 Ships built for Arctic work were to be had at St. John's, Newfound- 

 land, sealers that lay idle during the summer, and Bartlett tried at 

 first to obtain one of these. But as none of the owners would hire 

 unless he would consent to be under the command of a captain, he 

 decided to buy one for himself and thus have a vessel which would 

 be under his own control. 



A vessel suitable for the purpose was found at Gloucester, Mas- 

 sachusetts, a fishing schooner of HI tons, named the "George 



