PREFACE 



depended upon the game found by hunting) was quite clear to 

 me ; but the mind never occupies itself with the dangers when 

 one is setting out. Every Polar traveller is aware of his risks 

 when he leaves his home to set foot on unknown shores ; and 

 thus it was also with us. All my comrades greeted my plans 

 with enthusiasm, and every man was inspired with one thought 

 only : the certainty of success." It was in this spirit that they 

 set out. 



Rasmussen's tribute to the work done by his predecessors in 

 Arctic exploration is most generous and discriminating ; he 

 shows that he understood their difficulties, though they were 

 not his in the same way, and what they accomplished he is eager 

 to recognize and admire. They, or such of them as remain, 

 in their turn are glad and ready to say that what he and his com- 

 panions have added to the sum of Polar knowledge by their 

 detailed mapping of the coast-lands — the fauna, flora, and 

 geological formation of the north-western section of Greenland 

 and its connection with the discoveries of the eastern coasts — 

 has set the crown on the labours of those who have toiled before 

 him in the same field, and that his fine achievement has for ever 

 put him in the front rank of Polar explorers. 



LEWIS BEAUMONT. 



vn 



