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whose name is found in reference books under the heading of "Polar Explorer"
ever spent half that much time beyond either of the polar circles. Sir
John Franklin died durind his second winter and so did Captain Scott.
Shackleton spent three polar winters, Bartlett four, Nanson four. Amundsen
has eight winters to his credit and so has Sverdrup. Peary spent nine winters in the
Arctic. I have ten polar winters behind me now, but my record was only
half that when Hadley joined our expedition in 1914.

Hadley's experiences besides being more extensive then
that of any so-called explorer was also in a way more varied, for he had
been there as a trader, whaler, naval officer, coal miner and (the last
four years) as an explorer. He had traveled on foot and by sledge and in
every variety of sea conveyance - skin-boat, wooden whaleboat, sail ship
and steamer. He has hunted and trapped on the arctic lands; he has
traveled on the landfast sea ice and to some extent on the moving pack.
On one occation he and his party had been given up for dead when a terrific
gale broke the ice on which they were whaling west of Point Barrow and
carried them they knew not where, for they had no instruments of precision.
When they sighted land after several weeks of struggle, it was four hundred
miles from Point Barrow and about that far from where they had supposed
themselves to be.

As related in "My Life With the Eskimo," I first met
Hadley at Cape Smythe, near Point Barrow, in 1908, and liked and admired
him from the first. When the three ships of my expedition sailed past
Cape Smythe in 1913. Hadley he was there and wanted to join both because we
had always been good friends and because he was beginning to consider the
nort tip of Alaska a little tame and felt he needed fresher experiences.