PREFACE. 



The design of this book may be briefly explained. 

 I have attempted Uttle more than a personal narra- 

 tive, endeavoring to select from my abundant notes 

 such scenes and incidents of adventure as seemed 

 to me best calculated to bring before the mind of 

 the reader, not merely the history of our voyage, but 

 a general view of the Arctic regions, — its scenery 

 and its life, with a cursory glance at those physical 

 forces which, in their results, give characteristic ex- 

 pression to that remote quarter of the world. A 

 day of months, followed by a night of months, where 

 the mean annual temperature rises but little above 

 zero, must necessarily clothe the air and the land- 

 scape with a sentiment difficult to appreciate, or, I 

 might perhaps say, feel, without actual observation. 

 I shall be abundantly rewarded if I have succeeded 

 in impressing upon the reader's mind, with any de- 

 gree of vividness, the wonders and the grandeur of 

 Nature as unfolded to us under the Arctic sky. 



I know it is usually thought that a book of trav- 

 els should be simply a diary of events and incidents ; 

 but this, of necessity, involves a ceaseless repetition, 

 and it seemed to me that I would do better to drop 



