Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/9

 PREFACE

I glad to have this opportunity of presenting to a wide public an outline of the essential facts and problems of Polar Exploration. It is not more than introductory to a more comprehensive book which I hope to write when some leisure is afforded from the more real work of exploration and research. I must also note that it is not intended to be in any way a history of Polar Exploration.

The book is simply a "traveller's sample," revealing to some extent what is in the great "warehouse" of the Polar Regions. It is based, firstly, on the author's personal experiences during nine polar voyages—two to the Antarctic Regions, viz. in 1892–93 and 1902–04; seven to the Arctic Regions, viz. in 1896–97, in 1898 (two), in 1899, 1906, 1907, and 1909; secondly, on many personal conversations with living polar explorers during the past twenty years, including several conversations and correspondence with the veteran Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, O.M., who accompanied Sir James Clark Ross on his ever-memorable Antarctic voyage from 1839–1843, as well as conversation and correspondence with the leaders and many members of the staffs of every recent polar expedition.