THE AM ERIC AN-SCANDIN AVIAN REVIEW 
305 
Books 
The Friendly Arctic. By Vilhjalmur 
Stefansson. With a Foreword by Gilbert 
Grosvenor. Illustrated. 757 pages. New 
York: The Macmillan Company. 1921. 
At the very beginning of his interesting 
narrative covering five and a half years of 
arctic exploration, Vilhjalmur Stefansson 
strikes a keynote to which his whole story 
is attuned. This keynote sounds through 
every page of this large volume, and its theme 
is in effect as follows: 
Any person of sound body and mind with 
fair arctic experience, a reasonably good 
hunter, and possessed of average common 
sense, can tramp at will almost indefinitely 
over the top of the earth and find ample food, 
clothing, and shelter without the necessity of 
suffering any hardships or encountering any 
greater danger than he is likely to meet in, 
for instance, a city like New York. 
This theory of Stefansson’s that the arctic, 
with the exception of a few desert spots, can 
supply all the food and clothing and shelter 
that a man actually needs revolutionizes the 
average layman’s idea of the arctic regions. 
After perusing The Friendly Arctic, I won¬ 
dered whether Stefansson, whose career and 
writing I have followed pretty closely, had not 
actually made a discovery which is far more 
important than all the geographic, oceano¬ 
graphic, and ethnographic data brought back 
by him from his several arctic expeditions. I 
know nothing about the arctic except what I 
have read and heard. But I do know some¬ 
thing about the way in which various explor¬ 
ers, great and small, have proceeded to reach 
their objectives in the far north and how 
Stefansson went about reaching the same end. 
Is it unreasonable then to venture the state¬ 
ment that Stefansson has actually discovered 
a new science—the science of arctic explora¬ 
tion ? I cannot understand, after reading The 
Friendly Arctic, why other explorers cannot 
henceforth roam over the far reaches of the 
arctic regions as comfortably as Stefansson 
and with even greater safety. For Stefansson 
took chances that seem quite unnecessary. He 
should have had better sleds, better scientific 
equipment, and more ammunition on his great 
ice trip north from Martin Point and over to 
northern Banks Land in 1914. This layman 
ventures the humble opinion that the explorer 
took avoidable risks in crossing open leads 
and experimenting with thin ice. But it is not 
likely that even the most cautious explorer 
could eliminate all hazards in tramping around 
the North Pole. I believe arctic explorers are 
not generally harried by life insurance solic¬ 
itors. 
/ 
The Friendly Arctic covers Stefansson’s 
latest expedition from 1913 to 1918. It tells 
of the daring excursions made by the explorer 
and two, sometimes three, companions into the 
unknown polar regions north of the Canadian 
continent and north of the great Canadian 
archipelago where Stefansson discovered three 
fairly large islands. The principal scientific 
achievements, such as the discovery of these 
islands, the outlining of the continental shelf 
north of the Canadian mainland, the surveys 
of parts of islands, and the data on ocean cur¬ 
rents, meteorological conditions, and plant and 
animal life are told in plain language which 
any one can understand and enjoy. The most 
fascinating chapters of the book are those in 
which the author tells how he demonstrated 
the truth of his old theory, namely, that he 
could start off over the polar ice with only a 
few days’ rations for men and dogs and live 
off the ice, or rather the sea. It is now 
pretty generally known how Stefansson and 
his small party were counted as dead, even 
b> experienced polar travelers. Members 
of his expedition could hardly believe their 
own eyes when months after they had thought 
him dead, Stefansson and his two companions 
with their dogs appeared on Banks Land 
in good flesh and excellent health, having 
spent more than three months on the ice where 
there was believed to be no animal life, and 
where Stefansson found plenty of seal and 
bear. 
I was rather disappointed that Stefansson 
did not go into fuller detail concerning the 
mutinies with which he had to deal. The 
explorer merely gives the brief facts without 
much comment and without any malice. Many 
a person in Stefansson’s boots would have per¬ 
mitted himself a few words of criticism. But 
probably he may have drawn up a stronger in¬ 
dictment against his subordinate officials, who 
disregarded his orders and deliberately dis¬ 
obeyed him, by telling the simple, uncolored 
facts than by railing against them. The 
whole volume is extremely interesting and 
well written. John G. Holme. 
