xxiv INTRODUCTION 



then one feels oneself to be the very soul of this 

 group of men, resolute, faithful, and united by 

 common danger ; then, too, does one keenly 

 enjoy the contest between the strong ship and 

 the ice, the fog and the tempests. Those 

 primitive instincts inherent in man reawaken, 

 filling one with the ardour and enthusiasm 

 which inspired the earliest navigators. 



The age of maritime discoveries has passed 

 away, and it was only by wholly unexpected 

 good fortune that at this epoch I was permitted, 

 with God's aid, to plant the flag of my country 

 on a new land ; but the attraction of the 

 northern solitudes remains ever the same, and 

 in commencing my return journey last autumn, 

 it was not without deep regret that I saw the 

 frozen Arctic disappear astern. For six years 

 those regions had granted me forgetfulness of 

 my position as an exile, had taught me, too, 

 many new emotions pleasant and otherwise. 

 The sadness which comes of long isolation 

 sometimes preyed upon me ; inevitably there 

 came moments of disillusion and days of despair. 

 Those frozen seas taught me to love, even while 

 doubting them ; to them I have given part of a 

 wandering exile's life, part of my innermost 

 self. When I bade them adieu, I bade farewell 

 to a never-to-be-forgotten period of my life. 



