x INTRODUCTION 



course of which I hoped during the same summe 

 to cross again the Greenland ice-belt, and t 

 touch at Spitzbergen and Franz Joseph Land 

 so that I might obtain a complete view of th 

 ice-fields and lands of the European section 

 of the Arctic. 



Success attended this enterprise, but i 

 seems to me useless to narrate at length al 

 my experiences, as they would probably prov 

 wearying to all except sailors. 



Taking advantage, then, of the many occa 

 sions on which I have been able to stud] 

 hunting in the Arctic, I have introduced int< 

 this volume some descriptive extracts fron 

 my diary of 1909, adding thereto memoranda 

 of my 1904, 1905 and 1907 voyages. 



As I have in my preceding works given < 

 detailed description of the ice-fields, I thinl 

 I have already painted a sufficiently vivic 

 picture of the Polar lands I have visited, a; 

 well as of the habits of Polar animals and th< 

 methods of hunting them, a sport which wil 

 very soon be a thing of the past. 



In effect, the hunting of marine mammals 

 of such considerable importance during th( 

 past three centuries, may already be considerec 

 a thing of the past from the commercial stand- 

 point. 



