DEDICATION. 



them, and suggested their being thrown together and 

 submitted to a wider circle for perusal. Hence the 

 following pages, by illness long deferred. 



Not alone the strong tie of friendship induced me 

 to crave your permission to dedicate this book to 

 you, but also the knowledge that you have ever stood 

 foremost among those who, verbally and practically, 

 have evinced their conviction that it would be cruel 

 and would be a lasting disgrace to this country to 

 relinquish the search for the missing voyagers until 

 definitive information respecting them shall be 

 obtained, or the lapse of time render an assertion 

 of their being no longer in existence no mere 

 hypothesis. 



On another plea also I ask you to stand sponsor 

 to my literary babe (and herein I feel assured I speak 

 for many of those who, like myself, have wandered 

 amid the stern and chilling regions of the North). 

 There can be few " Arctic men " who will not unite 

 with me in earnest acknowledgment of your ever 

 willing aid (not the less energetic because unob- 



