PREFACE. 
This book is not a record of scientific inves¬ 
tigations. 
While engaged, under the orders of the Navy 
Department, in arranging and elaborating the 
results of the late expedition to the Arctic seas, 
I have availed myself of the permission of the 
Secretary to connect together the passages of 
my journal that could have interest for the 
general reader, and to publish them as a nar¬ 
rative of the adventures of my party. I have 
attempted very little else. 
The engravings with which my very liberal 
publishers have illustrated it, will certainly 
add greatly to any value the text may possess. 
Although largely, and, in some cases exclu- 
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