xxx INTRODUCTION 



purposeful human will through icy frosts, snowstorms, 

 and death. 



For the victory is not due to the great inventions of 

 the present day and the many new appliances of every 

 kind. The means used are of immense antiquity, the 

 same as were known to the nomad thousands of years 

 ago, when he pushed forward across the snow-covered 

 plains of Siberia and Northern Europe. But every- 

 thing, great and small, was thoroughly thought out, 

 and the plan was splendidly executed. It is the man 

 that matters, here as everywhere. 



Like everything great, it all looks so plain and 

 simple. Of course, that is just as it had to be, we 

 think. 



Apart from the discoveries and experiences of earlier 

 explorers which, of course, were a necessary condition 

 of success both the plan and its execution are the ripe 

 fruit of Norwegian life and experience in ancient and 

 modern times. The Norwegians' daily winter life in 

 snow and frost, our peasants' constant use of ski and 

 ski-sledge in forest and mountain, our sailors' yearly 

 whaling and sealing life in the Polar Sea, our explorers' 

 journeys in the Arctic regions it was all this, with 

 the dog as a draught animal borrowed from the primi- 

 tive races, that formed the foundation of the plan 

 and rendered its execution possible when the man 

 appeared. 



Therefore, when the man is there, it carries him 



