Excerpt from Our Lost Explorers: The Narrative of the Jeannette Arctic Expedition as Related by the Survivors, and in the Records and Last Journals of Lieutenant De LongThe Arctic Ocean has been for years the nursery of heroic deeds. And had the results of enterprise been even less than they have been in that region of frost and ice, and months-long night, what has been shown there of that which is noblest and most ad mirable in man would have been worth all that it has cost. The story of war and of battle brings to light much bravery, much en durance - often much magnanimity, yet the record is stained with so much of bloodshed, and of cruelty, that not infrequently it seems more like a transcript of the baser human passions than of heroic courage and noble achievement. And Arctic discovery, too, is full of pain, for its course is tracked with hardships, and its field is sown with graves. Yet there is so much of brightness, of hope, of mutual helpfulness, and of novel experience in the record, that we turn to the stories of polar adventure with the same zest with which boys breathe in the probabilities and glorious reckless ness of such adventurers as Tom Sawyer.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.