GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



" I must go to those people," I decided as a twelve-year-old 

 boy, and this decision, which later on I never succeeded in 

 slinking away from, has, through repeatedly staying among 

 them, led, so to say, to my reception into the tribe as one of 

 their own, as a friend and fellow-hunter. 



No hunter exists up there with whom I have not hunted, 

 and there is hardly a child whose name I do not know ; but 

 then, the tribe consists of no more than about 250 individuals. 



ESKIMO ARCTIC EXPLORERS 



These men, who have no fixed abode but live, as does their 

 prey, ever on the move, are born Arctic explorers. From 

 childhood they are hardened by an unmerciful cold, and their 

 means of livelihood exposes them almost daily to severe 

 physical strain and sudden dangers which sharpen their 

 presence of mind and make their contempt of death a matter 

 of course, the consequence being that they are unsurpassed as 

 companions on Arctic Expeditions. 



Kane, Hayes, Hall, Nares, Peary, the Crockerlands 

 Expedition, and, last, but not least, I myself recognized this, 

 and through these expeditions, comprising all those which 

 during the last seventy-five years have explored and charted 

 the northernmost parts of our earth, the Eskimos have in 

 different ways done their share, which must not be undervalued. 



In this record, however, I will dwell especially on Peary, 

 because his Arctic travels represent a chapter of the history of 

 the Polar Eskimos. 



The Eskimos owe not a little to Peary, but, on the other 

 hand, without their help Peary's name might have been less 

 famous than it is now ; for they followed him on all his expedi- 

 tions, left home and country and kind and put their whole 

 existence at stake in realizing the phantastic travelling schemes 

 of a foreign man. 



The way in which the Eskimos risk their lives, when once 

 they have promised a man their assistance, for the solution of 

 problems, wherein they themselves often see merely manifesta- 

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