Greenland by the Polar Sea/Preface
PREFACE
"GREENLAND by the Polar Sea" is the story, now introduced to English readers, of Mr. Knud Rasmussen's last expedition to the Polar shores of North Greenland. He counts it as his Fourth Thule Expedition, which shows how active and persevering has been his exploration of North Greenland since 1910, when he first formed his base of operations, and a trading station, at North Star Bay, and gave it the name of Thule. Two of these remarkable expeditions were sledge journeys across the inland-ice to the north-eastern and northern coasts of Greenland which yielded valuable results, clearing up some geographical doubts, and practically linking up the eastern and western discoveries of former explorers. Knud Rasmussen may confidently be said to be a very special and exceptionally favoured explorer of these regions, for not only was he born in Greenland and lived there as a boy, but his life among the Greenlanders and Eskimos, his perfect knowledge of their language, his admiration of their character, courage, and loyalty, and his intense desire to be the historian of their origin, traditions, and future development have, in a large measure, inspired him with the explorer's enthusiasm and have made him feel it to be possible, with slender means and limited resources, to complete the work begun by the far more costly expeditions which have gone before. These advantages, however, would have availed nothing without Knud Rasmussen's own personal qualities as an explorer—every page of the narrative shows his high capacity and thoughtfulness as a commander, his resourcefulness and daring as a leader, and the splendid courage and power of endurance which carried him through a time of extreme trial and responsibility. It was his firm support and example which saved the party from death on the return journey.
To those readers who are not familiar with the physical conditions of the immense mass of land known as Greenland it may be of use to explain that the inhabitants of the larger south half are spoken of as Greenlanders and those to the north of Melville Bay as Polar Eskimos or Arctic Highlanders. The inland-ice forms a barrier between the two, so that communication between them can only be made by ship.
Never before has the Arctic Highlander been made known to us in such intimate detail and with such true and affectionate understanding of his life and character as Rasmussen here gives us; he speaks as one of them, who has lived their life and shared their experiences, and to whom, as a people, he has become deeply attached. No wonder then that never before has an explorer been rewarded with such unstinted and devoted service as he receives from them. It is well to make this point clear, which Rasmussen in his narrative so modestly accepts as natural and does not emphasize. Early expeditions in those regions used one or two Eskimos as hunters and dog-drivers, and gained their experience of Arctic life at great cost and with but small results. Peary, in his twenty-four years of patient and determined effort to discover the hidden secrets of the Polar Basin, advanced step by step to the knowledge of the Eskimo's character and the value of his hunting craft and wonderful travelling instinct, but Rasmussen alone has led an important and successful expedition equipped and conducted entirely in Eskimo fashion and maintained, in its long and adventurous journey, by Eskimo hunting. It is only such a combination of European leadership and skill, adapted to native craft and conditions, that could have made such an extended exploration possible to him. The interest of the narrative is great, and sustained at a high level by the literary charm of the descriptions and the unaffected light and shade which runs through the whole story. It is the mark of a leader to keep his party in good spirits; it is the duty of the historian to show upon whom fell the responsibility and the decisions in emergencies. It was right to call it a great adventure, but Rasmussen, in the spirit of the true explorer, says: "The risk one runs on such expeditions (when their lives depended upon the game found by hunting) was quite clear to me; but the mind never occupies itself with the dangers when one is setting out. Every Polar traveller is aware of his risks when he leaves his home to set foot on unknown shores; and thus it was also with us. All my comrades greeted my plans with enthusiasm, and every man was inspired with one thought only: the certainty of success." It was in this spirit that they set out.
Rasmussen's tribute to the work done by his predecessors in Arctic exploration is most generous and discriminating; he shows that he understood their difficulties, though they were not his in the same way, and what they accomplished he is eager to recognize and admire. They, or such of them as remain, in their turn are glad and ready to say that what he and his companions have added to the sum of Polar knowledge by their detailed mapping of the coast-lands—the fauna, flora, and geological formation of the north-western section of Greenland and its connection with the discoveries of the eastern coasts—has set the crown on the labours of those who have toiled before him in the same field, and that his fine achievement has for ever put him in the front rank of Polar explorers.
LEWIS BEAUMONT.