vi Preface to Second Edition. 



able assistance and advice of such men as Admirals 

 Richards, McClintock, and Osborn, the Arctic Ex- 

 pedition of 1875 (in which I am proud to say I 

 have been one of the officers selected to take part) , 

 under the command of that experienced and dis- 

 tinguished officer Captain George S. Nares, will be 

 dispatched with every regard for the comfort and 

 well-being of its members, and with every, even 

 the minutest, detail considered that is likely to 

 ensure its success and safe return. 



The successes that have of late years been 

 achieved by the gallant explorers of other nations 

 in the ice-bound regions of the North, have no 

 doubt materially hastened the present determina- 

 tion to equip and send forth an expedition on such 

 a scale as will defy competition or failure. 



We regard Arctic exploration as work peculiarly 

 our own, the birthright of Englishmen, bequeathed 

 to us by a long list of Arctic heroes, containing the 

 names of such men as Davis, Hudson, Baffin, the 

 Rosses, Parry, Franklin, and Back ; and we have to 

 thank those bold and daring foreigners who have- 

 recently returned triumphant, after undergoing 

 unheard-of hardships and privations, for having 

 aroused within us a friendly feeling of rivalry, 

 enhanced by their successes, stirring up the ex- 

 piring embers of our ambition, and rekindling the 

 flame of emulation which appeared to be dying- 

 out. 



