xviii FOREWORD 



him in those six years I need not attempt to rebate. Five and one- 

 half years of those six this man has been there in the Arctic regions 

 adding to the sum of the world's knowledge. Five and one-half 

 years ! 



"It is not my intent to go into a resume of his work. He is going 

 to tell you that himself, but I can note very briefly that within that 

 time Stefansson has added more than 100,000 square miles to the 

 maps of that region — the greatest single addition made for years 

 in Arctic regions. He has outlined three islands that were entirely 

 unknown before, and his observations in other directions, the delin- 

 eation of the continental shelf, filling in of unknown gaps in the 

 Arctic archipelago, and his help in summing up our knowledge of 

 those regions are in fact invaluable. 



"Stefansson is perhaps the last of the old school, the old regime 

 of Arctic and Antarctic explorers, the worker with the dog and 

 the sledge, among whom he easily holds a place in the first rank. 

 Coming Polar explorers, both north and south, are quite likely to 

 use mechanical means which have sprung into existence within the 

 last few years. According to my own personal impressions — aerial 

 flights; according to Stefansson, he would like to try his chances 

 with a submarine; but whether it be aeroplane or submarine, it will 

 mean the end of the old-time method, with the dog and the sledge 

 and man trudging alongside or behind them. 



"What Stefansson stands for is this: he has grasped the mean- 

 ing of polar work and has pursued his task in the Arctic regions 

 section by section. He has profited by experience piled upon expe- 

 rience until he knows how to face and overcome every problem of 

 the North. His method of work is to take the white man's brains 

 and intelligence and the white man's persistence and will-power 

 into the Arctic and supplement these forces with the woodcraft, 

 or, I should say, polar-craft, of the Eskimo — the ability to live off 

 the land itself, the ability to use every one of the few possibilities 

 of those frozen regions — and concentrate on his work. 



"Stefansson has evolved a way to make himself absolutely self- 

 sustaining. He could have lived in the Arctic fifteen and a half 

 years just as easily as five and a half years. By combining great 

 natural, physical and mental ability with hard, practical common 

 sense, he has made an absolute record. 



"Stefansson has not only fought and overcome those ever-present 

 contingencies of the Arctic region — cold and hunger, wet and star- 

 vation, and all that goes with them — but he has fought and overcome 

 sickness — first, typhoid, then pneumonia, and then pleurisy — up in 



