FOREWORD xix 



those forbidding regions, and then has been obliged to go by sled 

 four hundred miles before finding the shelter of a hospital and the 

 care of a physician." 



GENERAL GREELY S TRIBUTE TO STEFANSSON 



Major General Greely then paid the following memorable tribute 

 to the Hubbard Gold Medalist: 



"We come together to welcome back Vilhjalmur Stefansson, 

 whose published obituary you have read, but who insists with Mark 

 Twain, that the account of his death has been greatly exaggerated. 

 However, it told indirectly the tale of his dangers and hardships. 



"Stefansson has several unique Arctic records. His five and a 

 half years is the world's record for continuous Polar service. A 

 pioneer in living on the game of the region, whether on the ice- 

 covered sea or on the northern lands, he also initiated distant 

 journeys on the ice-floes of an unknown sea, which carried him 

 hundreds of miles from the nearest land. 



"The contributions of his expeditions are important and exten- 

 sive. Besides the natural history and geologic knowledge, he has 

 made inroads into the million square miles of unknown Arctic 

 regions, the largest for many years. His hydrographic work is 

 specially important, in surveys, and in magnetic declinations. His 

 numerous soundings not only outline the continental shelf from 

 Alaska to Prince Patrick Island, but also disclose the submarine 

 mountains and valleys of the bed of Beaufort Sea. 



"From the unknown regions of Arctic land and sea he has with- 

 drawn areas amounting to approximately 100,000 square miles. 

 These discoveries comprise about 65,000 square miles of Beaufort 

 Sea to the north of the Mackenzie basin, 10,000 square miles of the 

 Arctic Ocean west of Prince Patrick Island, over 3,000 square 

 miles along the northeast coast of Victoria Island, and over 15,000 

 square miles of land and sea to the northeast of Prince Patrick 

 Island. In the last-named region three large and other small islands 

 were discovered between latitude 73 degrees and 80.2 degrees north 

 and between longitude 98 degrees west and 115 degrees west. 



"These new islands unquestionably fill in the last gap in the 

 hitherto unknown seaward limits of the great Arctic archipelago 

 to the north of the continent of America. 



"The spirit as well as the material results of exploration should 

 be recognized. To-night the borderland of the White Sea is in the 



