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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



single white hunter cutting loose from 

 his base, burning his bridges behind him, 

 striking out with only rifle, sledge and 

 two Eskimo, into the unknown East, 

 ignorant whether he should find the 

 missing tribes he sought or the game on 

 which life depended, with the same man 

 commanding fifty men and a squadron 

 of three ships under the Canadian flag, 

 and one gets a sense of the difference in 

 exploration methods and the different 

 ways by which men go about what looks 

 like pretty much the same thing. 



More than these rare enough qualities 

 though, Stefansson, as the reader of My 

 Life with the Eskimo will quickly learn, 

 has others not less notable. He not only 

 can make history, he tells it with frank- 

 ness, simplicity and naivete which make 

 reading a pleasure and carry one, as 

 with actors in a play or characters in ro- 

 mance. He makes light of hardships, 

 hard places and hard luck and whether 

 without matches or food, appears to 

 count it as all in the game and never 

 grumbles nor bewails his luck. 



As a contribution of sub-Arctic eth- 

 nology and archaeology, although written 

 in familiar terms for the reading of every- 

 body, the book adds a store to knowledge, 

 while when it comes to dealing with 

 purely scientific and technical values, 

 no authority is as competent and im- 

 partial as Stefansson. He takes nothing 

 for granted, not many things, even him- 

 self seriously, and weighs all theories 

 and hypotheses in the light of actual 

 facts and positive evidence. He does not 

 attempt to decide where the blonde Es- 



kimo came from. He tells what he saw 

 and learned and reserves his decision 

 until he is certain that he has gathered 

 all the evidence. 



In like manner the two chapters, sup- 

 plemental to the narrative, upon the 

 religion of the Eskimo and conversion 

 of the heathen, are a most illuminating 

 assemblage of actual facts, upon which 

 Stefansson ventures no dogmatic opin- 

 ion, although it is easy to detect between 

 the lines what he really thinks. 



Dr. R. M. Anderson's hundred pages 

 on the geology, plants, trees, fishes and 

 mammals of the Northwestern Arctic are 

 valuable and instructive, cut down to 

 lowest and scientific terms, and his pres- 

 ence with his former leader and comrade 

 with the Canadian Arctic expedition 

 gives promise of thorough study and 

 large accessions of knowledge concern- 

 ing a rapidly disappearing fauna. Maps 

 and indexes are hardly as complete and 

 copious as would be desired and the 

 haste of Stefansson's departure to which 

 the publishers refer, is emphasized by the 

 lack of a table of contents and an intro- 

 duction, for which the first chapter will 

 serve as a tolerable substitute. 



My Life with the Eskimo must make 

 multitudes of readers and friends every- 

 where, who will await with eagerness the 

 news, as it shall come at mfrequent and 

 irregular intervals, of the absent expedi- 

 tion, until it brings to us the chapters 

 yet to be written concerning the distri- 

 bution and the past, present and future 

 of these quaint interesting Eskimo tribes 

 of our common human family. 



