Review of Eeviews, l/i/13. 



195 



«!/ kind pcrmission-i [o/ ,Vr. ]lri,i,',„,i,in. 



OUR JOYFUL CAMP IN THE SHELTEiR. O'P THE BERG. 



NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE MONTH. 



ARCTIC EXPLORATION AT ITS 

 GRIMMEST. 



Lost in the Arctic. By Captain Ejnar 

 Mikkcken. (William Heinemann, 18/- net.) 



The impression left on the mmd after 

 readinj^r Caj^tain iVniundsen's narrative 

 of the manner in which he arrived at 

 the South Pole, was that of a journey 

 not without its hardships, but straight- 

 forward, and as lacking in any element 

 of the unexpected as an Antarctic ex]:)e- 

 dition can be. The same description 

 might aiiph' with little variation to 

 Captain Peary's story of the hnding of 

 the North Pole. These are the out- 

 standing achievements in the conquest 

 of the ice-covered caps of the earth, 

 and they are apt to create the view that 

 the men who tried and failed were 

 bunglers. The truth is that both exjie- 

 ditions were sjjlendidly equipped, and 

 carried through by capable organisers 

 with great experience. They had good 

 luck, too, m the choice of time and in 

 the matter of weather. What all these 

 things mean in success comes vividly to 

 the imagination as we read Captain 

 Ejnar Mikkelsen's story of his three 

 years' in Greenland. This is the real 

 Arctic, in which starving men stagger 

 blindly along over ice and snow and 



rock, kept moving only by the inward 

 knowledge that the)- must find food 

 within a few hours or perish miserably 

 of cold and hunger. Ever the story 

 seems to tremble on the edge of 

 tragedy. Captain .Mikkelsen writes 

 well, and far more graphically than 

 Captain Amundsen. We do not envy 

 the spirit of the man who. having begun 

 his story, can lay it down before the 

 hnal page. 



It was in 1906 that the ex])edition of 

 Mylius Erichsen went to Greenland to 

 surve}' the hitherto unexplored North- 

 East Coast. The work was done, but 

 Erichsen and the two men who accom- 

 panied him perished of cold and want. 

 A later exj^edition found the body of 

 Brbnlund. the last of the three men to 

 die, but the diaries recording the obser- 

 vations were not found. To discover 

 and bring these back, if possible, the 

 exi)edition of Caj>tain Mikkelsen w^as 

 organised. Six men went on the little 

 "Alabama," which was finalh^ crushed 

 by the ice, and the larger part of the 

 work of exploration was carried out 

 by Mikkelsen and one companion, Iver- 

 sen. Two messages from Erichsen were 

 fciuiul, but the diaries were not re- 

 covered. Instc.id, Captain Mikkelsen 



