FOREWORD 
It would be superfluous to enlarge on Hen- 
son in this introduction. His work in the 
north has already spoken for itself and for 
him. His book will speak for itself and him. 
Yet two of the interesting points which 
present themselves in connection with his work 
may be noted. 
Henson, son of the tropics, has proven 
through years, his abihty to stand tropical, 
temperate, and the fiercest stress of frigid, 
chmate and exposure, while on the other hand, 
it is well known that the inhabitants of the 
highest north, tough and hardy as they are to 
the rigors of their own climate, succumb very 
quickly to the vagaries of even a temperate 
climate. The question presents itself at once : 
"Is it a difference in physical fiber, or in brain 
and will power, or is the difference in the 
climatic conditions themselves?" 
Again it is an interesting fact that in the 
final conquest of the "prize of the centuries," 
not alone individuals, but races were repre- 
sented. On that bitter brilhant day in April, 
1909, when the Stars and Stripes floated at the 
North Pole, Caucasian, Ethiopian, and Mon- 
golian stood side by side at the apex of the 
vu 
