The Long Arctic Search: The Narrative of Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka, U.S.A., 1878-1880, Seeking the Records of the Lost Franklin Expedition

117 pp. Original blue wrappers, black stamped titles. Color frontispiece of Schwatka interviewing natives, from a painting by Albert Operti. Includes several maps, reproductions of historical illustrations, and a facsimile of a letter written by Schwatka. A reproduction from the original manuscript of Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka's account of his expedition. From the foreword: "It is both an historical record of a remarkable sledge journey and a living document reflecting the courage of the Caucasians and Eskimos forming the Schwatka party. Those several Arctic journeys seeking the lost Franklin Expedition established themselves firmly in history and gave the nineteenth century some of its most adventuresome pages, and Schwatka's narrative is among the best... It was the hope of locating [the] lost Franklin records that launched the last great Franklin Search - the expedition led by Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka..." Though Franklin and his crew were lost, the wide-ranging search for them led to more detailed mapping of the Canadian Arctic - Richard Cyriax notes in his study 'Sir John Franklin's Last Arctic Expedition' that "the loss of the expedition probably added much more [geographical] knowledge than its successful return would have done."