At length, after terrible sufferings, the two men returned to the winter quarters, only to find that their ship had sunk and that all their companions had gone home in a vessel that arrived in the summer. A house, needing much repair and full of snow, had been built out of timber from the wreck, and there were provisions. In view of the paucity of game, their companions considered that they would serve the absent men best by returning when there was a chance, thus avoiding the consumption of the remaining provisions. “They were all persuaded that Captain Mikkelsen would succeed in fighting his way through, armed as he was with iron energy and great Arctic knowledge, and with a companion who would stick to him through thick and thin.” At last a vessel arrived to rescue them, after three winters, and the two heroic explorers were brought safely back to Copenhagen. This expedition, with its aspirations accomplished and its valuable results, stands high in the polar record. Mikkelsen’s reward was the appreciation of his work by the scientific geographers of all countries. His interesting narrative is contained in the _Story of the Alabama Expedition, 1909–1912_. RASMUSSEN The expedition across Greenland led by Knud Rasmussen, a Dane born in Greenland, is of very special interest because it inaugurates what is intended to be a permanent system of exploring work, which at the same time undertakes the protection of the Arctic Highlanders, that most interesting tribe, quite uncontaminated by contact with civilisation when first discovered by Sir John Ross in 1818 and visited by the writer in 1850. Under modern conditions the protection of the Danish Government is much needed by these well-intentioned but simple and isolated people. With this most laudable object Rasmussen in July 1910 formed a settlement among these people in Wolstenholme Sound, which he called “Thule.” In the following year, becoming anxious for the safety of Mikkelsen and his companion, he organised an expedition to cross Greenland with the hope of relieving them. This was the main object, discovery being secondary.