INTR OD UCTION 7 



widely extended. Hence we may see that no work done 

 in the service of investigation is ever lost, not even when 

 carried out under false assumptions. England has to 

 thank these chimeras in no small degree for the fact that 

 she has become the mightiest seafaring nation of the 

 world. 



By many paths and by many means mankind has 

 endeavored to penetrate this kingdom of death. At 

 first the attempt was made exclusively by sea. Ships 

 were then ill adapted to combat the ice, and people were 

 loath to make the venture. The clinker-built pine and 

 fir barks of the old Northmen were no better fitted for 

 the purpose than were the small clumsy carvels of the 

 first English and Dutch Arctic explorers. Little by 

 little they learnt to adapt their vessels to the conditions, 

 and with ever -increasing daring they forced them in 

 among the dreaded floes. 



But the uncivilized polar tribes, both those that 

 inhabit the Siberian tundras and the Eskimo of North 

 America, had discovered, long before polar expeditions 

 had bes:un, another and a safer means of traversinq- these 

 regions — to wit, the sledge, usually drawn by dogs. It 

 was in Siberia that this excellent method of locomotion 

 was first applied to the service of polar exploration. 

 Already in the 17th and iSth centuries the Russians 

 undertook very extensive sledge journeys, and charted 

 the whole of the Siberian coast from the borders of 

 Europe to Bering Strait. And they did not merely 



