EjNAR MlKKELSEN. 



ERNEST DE K. LEFFINGWELL. 



PUBLISHER'S NOTE 



MR. MIKKELSEN explains in his introduction the origin of 

 the expedition of which his is the faithful record. I wish 

 to add only a word to what he says. Mr. Mikkelsen came 

 to see me in October, 1905, and I was very much struck by 

 his enthusiasm, in fact I may say that I felt for the first time 

 in my life sympathy with that extraordinary impulse which 

 has induced so many men to risk their lives in the investigation 

 of those vague masses of ice that separate us from the 

 Magnetic Pole. I arranged with him to publish any book 

 he might be able to write on the result of his expedition, and 

 advanced him funds towards the cost of the expenses of 

 equipment. The expedition established the fact that no land 

 exists north of Alaska, and if this negative result was not 

 exactly what he or I had hoped for, I realize that the account 



