464 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



of more general range presented by the Frederick A. Stokes Com- 

 pany. On the Karluk was also my private library gathered through 

 many years, for I had expected to remain aboard ship for four or 

 five months each year and was hoping to do much scientific writ- 

 ing, some of it by aid of my notes of the previous expedition. 

 All these books and manuscript materials were lost with the Karluk, 

 and the contents of the manuscripts irreparably lost, for memory 

 in most cases is so unreliable that when one's notes go the value 

 of the work of months or years goes with them. I read now as new 

 revelations the notes in my Eskimo diaries of ten years back, and 

 continually find it valuable to check up my assertions by those 

 records. 



Most of the books originally on the Alaska continued with her, 

 although several were sent to me with the Star, notably a valu- 

 able collection of ethnological works selected and forwarded by 

 Jenness. I had now read all the books on the Star with the ex- 

 ception of a few which I arranged to have carried to Melville 

 Island during the spring. Some of these I carried because I knew 

 I wanted to read them, others merely because they were there 

 and had not yet been read. They were Hedin, "Trans-Himalaya;" 

 Harrison, "Philosophy of Common Sense" and "National and So- 

 cial Problems;" Hegner, "Introduction to Zoology;" Ingersoll's 

 "Lectures;" Comte, "Positive Philosophy;" De Morgan, "When 

 Ghost Meets Ghost;" Sue, "Wandering Jew;" Hobbs, "Earth Fea- 

 tures;" Mikkelsen, "Conquering the Arctic Ice;" Ellis, "Man and 

 Woman;" and Boulger, "Botany." 



The books in the list above I did not carry on the sledge trip 

 of 1916 except the Hobbs, Hegner and Comte. On most of my 

 trips I carried some book on mathematical astronomy. Puzzling 

 out problems and figuring are in themselves good for passing as 

 distinguished from killing time. 



There was one book that never ceased to engage and amuse 

 me. I was a small boy when Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's 

 Mines" was published. I was brought up in the cowboy country, 

 consequently handicapped in my power to enjoy Wild West stories, 

 but I would swallow every yarn that came out of Africa. I don't 

 know that I actually believed Rider Haggard's stories to be vera- 

 cious histories, but I supposed them to be the sort of thing that 

 easily happens in Africa, and every incident made as vivid an 

 impression on me as if I had believed them to be literally true. 

 It stuck in my mind for twenty years that wherever he went Sir 

 Henry Curtis carried with him a copy of the Ingoldsby Legends. 



