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FOR more than three hundred years an intense desire has been felt by explorers to discover and reveal to the world the secrets of the immediate regions of the North Pole. Nor has this desire been confined to mere adventurers. Learned geographers, skillful navigators, and scientific men of broad and accurate study, have engaged in these enterprises with enthusiastic interest. The great governments of the Christian world have bestowed upon them liberally the resources of their wealth and science, and never to a greater extent than within the last three years. Failure seems but to stimulate exertion. Scarcely have the tears dried on the faces of the friends of those who have perished in the undertaking before we hear of the departure of a fresh expedition. Something like a divine inspiration has attended these explorations from the first, and their moral tone has been excellent.

This volume sketches the latest American efforts, second to no others in heroism and success, and abounding in instructive and intensely interesting adventures both grave and gay.

We have followed in this volume, as in its companion volume, "The Arctic Heroes," the orthography of Professor Dall, of the Smithsonian Institution, in some frequently-occurring Arctic words.