Copyright 1904 and 1911By D. C. Heath & Company
Copyright 1904 and 1911By D. C. Heath & Company
PREFACE
While abundant material has been put before children with the purpose of making them familiar with the history and industrial development of various parts of the known world, very little has been written to inform them of the work which is now being done in the comparatively unknown regions of the north, or of the history of the early discoveries which have led to it.
The importance of the present determined search for the North Pole is admitted by all thoughtful people, and the subject is one which must increase in interest until the entire North Frigid Zone is correctly mapped and charted.
Accounts of the pioneers in this work of discovery, of Franklin and of Kane, and in our own day of Nansen and Peary, are available only in such exhaustive works as are unsuitable reading for children, and which sometimes tax the patience of the adult. Hence the work done by these intrepid explorers upon the American continent and north of it remains unstudied and unknown.
It is hoped that this book may give our young people sufficient knowledge of the subject to enable them to read farther with intelligence, and that it may also inspire them with interest in the many expeditions that are being sent out.
The descriptions of the strange people who inhabit these cold countries, their dress, their ways of living, their customs, and their manners, all interest the child,and meet his natural desire to hear about other people than those living in the part of the world about him.
No complete history has been attempted, but rather a series of sketches which, it is hoped, will enable the reader to appreciate the achievements of the brave men who have lent and are lending their best efforts to the task of unlocking and wresting from the Frozen North, the secrets so necessary for the advancement of science.