FOREWORD 



By Gilbert Grosvenor, LL.D. 

 President of the National Geographic Society 



UNDER WHOSE DIRECTION THE ORGANIZATION OF THE EXPEDITION 



WAS BEGUN 



The Macmillan Company, 

 64 Fifth Avenue, 

 New York City. 



October 18, 1921. 



I 



''■yAM sending you enclosed the introduction which you have 

 requested me to prepare. It may seem to you at first rather 

 long, but I would ask you to note that my own part of it is 

 very short. 



"It seemed to me very desirable that the tributes to Stefansson 

 by Admiral Peary and General Greely should be incorporated in this 

 introduction, particularly as this address by Admiral Peary was 

 his last public appearance. Peary had been very sick for months, 

 but I realized his friendship for Stefansson, and so I asked him if 

 he would not come and present Stefansson to our audience. We 

 (Peary and I) knew at the time that it was to be Peary's last public 

 appearance. I hope you can use his address and Greely's, because 

 these tributes were deliberately prepared by them and have great 

 historical value. In fifty years these words of praise by Peary and 

 Greely will be valued very highly, but they will be forgotten unless 

 tied up in a book. They will mean more to the future than any 

 words of mine. 



"Yours very truly, 

 (Signed) "Gilbert Grosvenor." 



When in the winter of 1913 Stefansson expressed a desire to 

 resume his northern explorations and was seeking financial help, the 

 Research Committee of the National Geographic Society, impressed 



XV 



