INTRODUCTION xxiii 



for a winter on walrus after their sled journey across the sea ice 

 was over; Peary and some others also depended on game to supply 

 part of the food of their crews in winter quarters and to eke out 

 supplies that could be hauled on sledges. Dr. R. M. Anderson and 

 Stefansson, between 1908 and 1912, put Rae's methods to a thorough 

 test and found them effective; they further proved that white men 

 can easily master every art of the Eskimo that is useful for safe 

 and comfortable existence in the Arctic. But the enterprise which 

 began at Martin's Point on the 22d March, 1914, and ended 

 (so far as this aspect is concerned) at Banks Land on the 25th of 

 the following June, was of a character wholly different. The exam- 

 ination of the Beaufort Sea west of Banks and Prince Patrick 

 Islands had been declared by Sir Clements Markham* in his "Life 

 of Admiral McClintock" to be "the great desideratum in Arctic 

 geography." There were reasons for believing that there might be 

 islands in the Beaufort Sea and there were reasons against this 

 hypothesis. In Markham's opinion, knowledge of the Arctic regions 

 would remain very incomplete until this area had been discovered 

 and explored. Stefansson proposed to cross the Beaufort Sea on 

 the ice, depending for food on the animal life which he believed to 

 be existent in that sea. Against his belief all the forces of observa- 

 tion and experience were arrayed. The explorers to whom I have 

 alluded as "living off the country" wholly or in part, had done so 

 on or near land where Eskimos were already living or where Eskimos 

 thought they could live. All of them but Rae used Eskimo hunters 

 to secure part or all of the game used. Stefansson was now strik- 

 ing out into a region where no Eskimo had ever ventured and into 

 which no Eskimo would accompany him unless he carried food, for 

 they believed that no game could be found in that unknown waste. 

 This very region has been referred to by Sir Clements Markham as 

 "The Polar Ocean Without Life." The testimony and experience 

 of Nansen and Peary were quite unfavorable to the hypothesis 

 which Stefansson had formed. Eskimos and whalers were equally 

 strong in the opinion that his venture must be disastrous in any 

 event and fatal if persisted in. Against all this Stefansson placed 

 reliance on deductions founded upon premises that he regarded as 

 unassailable. 



* Markham, himself a distinguished polar explorer, was for many years 

 President of the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain and was in 

 intimate personal touch with every great polar explorer from Parry to Peary. 

 He was therefore commonly considered a foremost authority on all polar 

 matters. 



