EARLY YEARS 
life by falling in a crevasse in a glacier. His 
body was never recovered. On the first and 
the last of Peary's expeditions, success was 
marred by tragedy. On the last expedition. 
Professor Ross G. Marvin, of Cornell Uni- 
versity, lost his life by being drowned in the 
Arctic Ocean, on his return from his farthest 
north, a farther north than had ever been 
made by any other explorers except the mem- 
bers of the last expedition. Both VerhoeiF 
and Marvin were good friends of mine, and I 
respect and venerate their memories. 
Naturally the impressions formed on my 
first visit to the Land of Ice and Snow were 
the most lasting, but in the coming years I 
was to learn more and more that such a life 
was no picnic, and to realize what primitive 
life meant. I was to live with a people who, 
the scientists stated, represented the earliest 
form of human life, living in what is known as 
the Stone Age, and I was to revert to that 
stage of life by leaps and bounds, and to 
emerge from it by the same sudden means. 
Many and many a time, for periods covering 
more than twelve months, I have been to all 
intents an Esquimo, with Esquimos for com- 
6 
