[Illustration: 1. ESQUIMAUX DOG-TEAM.] THE POLAR WORLD: A POPULAR DESCRIPTION OF MAN AND NATURE IN THE ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC REGIONS OF THE GLOBE. BY DR. G. HARTWIG, AUTHOR OF “THE SEA AND ITS LIVING WONDERS,” “THE HARMONIES OF NATURE,” AND “THE TROPICAL WORLD.” WITH ADDITIONAL CHAPTERS AND ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1869. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. The object of the following pages is to describe the Polar World in its principal natural features, to point out the influence of its long winter-night and fleeting summer on the development of vegetable and animal existence, and finally to picture man waging the battle of life against the dreadful climate of the high latitudes of our globe either as the inhabitant of their gloomy solitudes, or as the bold investigator of their mysteries. The table of contents shows the great variety of interesting subjects embraced within a comparatively narrow compass; and as my constant aim has been to convey solid instruction under an entertaining form, I venture to hope that the public will grant this new work the favorable reception given to my previous writings. G. HARTWIG. NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. I have made no alterations in the text of Dr. Hartwig’s book beyond changing the orthography of a few geographical and ethnological terms so that they shall conform to the mode of representation usual in our maps and books of travel. For example, I substitute _Nova Zembla_ for “Novaya Zemla”, and _Samoïedes_ for “Samojedes.” Here and there throughout the work I have added a sentence or a paragraph. The two chapters on “Alaska” and “The Innuits” have been supplied by me; and for them Dr. Hartwig is in no way responsible. The Illustrations have been wholly selected and arranged by me. I found at my disposal an immense number of illustrations which seemed to me better to elucidate the text than those introduced by Dr. Hartwig. In the List of Illustrations the names of the authors to whom I am indebted are supplied. The following gives the names of the authors, and the titles of the works from which the illustrations have been taken: ATKINSON, THOMAS WITLAM: “Travels in the Regions of the Upper Amoor;” and “Oriental and Western Siberia.” BROWNE, J. ROSS: “The Land of Thor.” DUFFERIN, LORD: “Letters from High Latitudes.” HALL, CHARLES FRANCIS: “Arctic Researches, and Life among the Esquimaux.” HARPER’S MAGAZINE: The Illustrations credited to this periodical have been furnished during many years by more than a score of travellers and voyagers. They are in every case authentic.