8 PREFACE. 



3. Considering the unfavorable and forbidding 

 circumstances of their condition, in living as 

 the natives lived, and their travels in the depths 

 of winter from one settlement to another in order 

 to avoid starvation, it is remarkable that so many 

 of them, with so little sickness, should be rescued 

 the following year. 



A plain statement of these facts the author felt 

 was due to his fellow-townsmen, and would prob- 

 ably be of some considerable interest to all classes 

 of readers, and therefore meriting a permanent 

 record with the varied experience of whalemen. 



The limited time the author spent with Captain 

 Norton,* who was then preparing for sea, from 

 whom he received the leading facts in the narra- 

 tive, after it was concluded to give it to the pub- 

 lic, is his only apology for not introducing more 

 extended particulars. 



Mr. Abram Osborn, Jr.,f Mr. John P. Fisher,]: 

 and Mr. John W. Norton,§ now absent at sea, con- 

 firmed the report of the captain, besides having 

 contributed important materials to the narrative 

 themselves. 



Any information respecting the physical fea- 

 tures of the arctic region, and the character of its 



* Master of the ship South Seaman, of New Bedford. 

 f Master of the ship William Wirt, of New Bedford. 

 % First officer of the ship General Pike, of New Bedford. 

 § First officer of the ship William Henri/, of Fairhaven. 



