X PREFACE 



were known to me through association with them in polar waters, but 

 I had not the intimate knowledge of them possessed by Captain 

 Pedersen. I authorized the employment of expert ship inspectors, 

 who soon reported that the Elvira was unsound, but that the other 

 three ships were in good condition. They agreed with Captain 

 Pedersen that the best of them was the Karluk. On the strength 

 of the backing secured from the American organizations I had 

 already concluded the purchase of the Karluk before the expedition 

 was transferred to the Canadian Government, whereupon she was 

 resold at cost to the Government. 



With the authority and resources of a nation behind us, we 

 now had the opportunity of organizing the most comprehensive polar 

 expedition that ever sailed, for no expedition in history has been 

 so fortunately situated. In some cases naval expeditions have been 

 sent out by governments, but in those cases the purposes have not 

 been primarily scientific. In expeditions that have been primarily 

 scientific governments have sometimes taken a limited part and 

 have granted lump sums of money. We had a more liberal backing, 

 for Canada decided to stint us in nothing that might contribute to 

 scientific success. 



The selection of the scientific staff was the first consideration. 

 The sciences to be investigated were anthropology (archaeology, 

 ethnology, somatology), biology (botany and zoology, both ter- 

 restrial and marine), geography, geology, mineralogy, oceanography, 

 terrestrial magnetism. In a scientific staff suitable to carry out 

 investigations in all these sciences there are sure to be men who 

 can accumulate knowledge in other departments also. In that sense 

 such a polar expedition can make all knowledge its province. The 

 sciences named turned out to be by no means the only ones that 

 benefited by the work of our scientific staff. 



It appeared at once that, although we preferred Canadians, it 

 was not possible to secure an adequate scientific staff in Canada. 

 In general, we wanted men in whom university training was merely 

 the foundation and who had after graduation settled upon one of 

 these sciences as his life work. Half of our staff had academic 

 training equivalent to that of a Doctor of Philosophy. We were 

 able to secure only five out of our staff of fifteen in Canada. Even- 

 tually it was made up as follows: from Canada 5, from Great 

 Britain 3, from the United States 2, from Australia 1, from New 

 Zealand 1, from Denmark 1, from Norway 1, and from France 1. 

 The following is a partial list of the universities represented in 

 the training of these men, partial because several of them had been 



