PREFACE. 



THE pages of this book contain a personal narrative 

 of varied experiences in the Northern regions over 

 forty years ago. In the period dealt with, Hull and other 

 ports were largely benefitted by the ships which yearly 

 left the shores of this country for adventurous voyages in 

 the Arctic Seas, and fortunes which many enjoy to-day 

 were laid by ancestors who did not hesitate to brave the 

 perilous and dangerous hardships frequently encountered 

 among the eternal icefields, blinding snowstorms, and 

 fierce gales of the pitiless North. Not a few of England's 

 sons found lonely graves in the land of the Esquimaux 

 and the Polar Bear, and to this day may be found 

 wooden monuments denoting their birth-place, date of 

 death, and the ships to which they belonged. Such 

 were raised by those who reverentially laid them to rest, 

 and as this narrative will show, were found undisturbed 

 in years after. Others who survived to narrate to their 

 children and friends at home thrilling scenes in their 

 Arctic life, and who are alluded to in these pages, have 

 long since embarked on their last voyage to the Silent 

 Land. It is years since the last ship left Hull for Davis's 

 Straits, and the younger generation of Hull's sons know 

 nothing of whaling, and the many essentials necessary 



