10 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



and thus brought fear and dire forebodings to the hearts of 

 superstitious sailors. But who then, except these wise rats, 

 dreamed that a single solitary iceberg among the almost 

 countless numbers that would be passed on the way would 

 wilfully crash into the Miranda, and so delay matters by the 

 damage inflicted as to force the expedition to give up its cher- 

 ished plan of piercing into really far northern latitudes ; or 

 again, who among the human beings dreamed that the ship 

 would ultimately come to grief upon some sunken rocks off 

 the bleak coast of Greenland, and thus end the expedition in 



disaster ? 

 But this, as 

 Mr. Kipling 

 says, is an- 

 other story, 

 or rather 

 one to be 

 told later on. 

 At the 

 start it may 

 be well to 

 state briefly 

 the objects 

 THE MIRANDA. of the ex- 



pedition, which, though they were not accomplished, except in 

 part, still made up a very attractive prospectus. The 

 main objects were : To study the Greenland glacier system, 

 the inland ice -cap, the glaciers and icebergs; to map out 

 and explore a part of the unknown coast of Melville Bay, 

 and to photograph, sketch, and study the Eskimos, and the 

 animal and vegetable life to be found in the northern 

 regions. 



The Peary camp was to be visited, and the latest news con- 

 cerning that expedition was to be brought back to the United 



