THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



CHAPTER I 



THE FOUR STAGES IN POLAR EXPLORATION 



This chapter and the next are concerned with fundamental 

 aspects of polar exploration and of the polar regions. They are put 

 here rather than in an appendix because a grasp of general principles 

 should help to make clear many things that might otherwise seem 

 inexplicable in the narrative which follows. 



Anyone who does not care to be told in advance what polar 

 exploration and the polar regions are like should skip to the be- 

 ginning of the narrative proper in Chapter III. 



WHEN attempt is made to arrange a large number of facts 

 in diagrammatic order for the sake of easy comprehen- 

 sion, exact truth frequently suffers in the interests of sim- 

 plicity. This happens when we classify all polar exploration into 

 four stages. Still, the view is more helpful than a conglomerate of 

 facts and details where no philosophic scheme appears. 



There are many overlappings ; there is occasional retrogression; 

 and in some instances one stage of exploration will survive parallel 

 to another. But, speaking generally, there are four great suc- 

 cessive stages. 



When in prehistoric times the Scandinavians spread northward 

 in Europe and when the Eskimos and other Mongol-like people 

 moved north in Asia and America to occupy the rich hunting grounds 

 along the polar shores, this was not exploration in the true sense. 

 It would not be exploration in the true sense even if the story were 

 completely known, for these people came so gradually in contact with 

 their new environment that the quest and adventure and heroic en- 

 deavor which in our minds are inseparably associated with explora- 



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