90 COOK'S PREPARATION 



a Danish governor, and from there Dr. Cook with a small party set out to 

 look for assistance. He finally got in touch with a Gloucester fishing schooner, 

 the Rigel, commanded by Captain Dixon. The big-hearted captain gave up 

 his fishing trip, the first that he had attempted off the coast of Greenland, 

 and came to the rescue of the Miranda and her party of stranded explorers. 

 The Miranda and the Rigel were connected by cable and, the steamer towing 

 the schooner, started for home. 



"Dr. Cook and the rest of us took up our quarters on the Rigel, the officers 

 and crew of the Miranda alone remaining on that ship. On the second night 

 out, however, a -stormy one, the ballast tank of the Miranda began to give 

 way and a signal of distress went up from the Miranda, and dories manned 

 by the Rigel's crew went over to the Miranda and brought over the officers 

 and crew of that ship. The cable connecting the two vessels was cut and 

 the Miranda was abandoned to her fate upon the high seas. 



"She contained all the worldly collections we had brought with us, our 

 extra clothes, outfits, gims, ammunition, stores, etc., and all the collections 

 that various members had made in Labrador and Greenland, probably rather 

 undigestible food even for Arctic fishes. ■ After dodging for a time among 

 icebergs, the little Rigel finally landed seventeen days later at Sydney, Cape 

 Breton Island, whence the wrecked party had no trouble in making its way 

 back to New York." 



Mr. Walsh also tells some of Dr. Cook's personal traits : 



"Naturally, at the meetings of the Explorers' club and at the meetings of 

 its officers and directors, I was thrown in much with Dr. Cook, and also had 

 the pleasure at times of visiting him in his own home, and always found 

 him a delightful and hospitable host, and it was pleasant to see the kindly 

 domestic side of this man who spent so many years in wild and far-away 

 places, where the gentler and domestic side of a man has little chance of de- 

 velopment. 



'T was minded of Bayard Taylor's well-known couplet : 



"The bravest are the tenderest, 

 The loving are the daring." 



"I have been asked to tell something about Dr. Cook's pastimes and 

 favorite amusements, but as far as I know he seems to care but little for 

 the ordinary pastimes and amusements. I have never seen him play any game 

 of cards, but in one of the upper rooms of his Brooklyn home he had a pool 



