PREFACE: Of the two objects which were in view when this journey was undertaken, the first and more important was to experiment with and test a selected variety of equipment, clothing, and food under the conditions of an Artic winter, in order that the results of this experience might be utilised in the more prolonged and far more difficult journey contemplated to the unknown Artic area north of Franz Josef Land. As most people are aware, the low Tundras of Artic Russia and Siberia, although readily accessible and stretching on the East, West, and South to the confines of civilisation, possess a winter climate of a severity so great that it does not merely exceed the rigour of many regions lying farther north, and in the strict embrace of Oceanic ice, but actually reveals the lowest temperatures yet recorded in the whole of the Artic Basin.... Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900"s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We ar