The narrative of Bradford’s 1869 original is all but unreadable in its original elephant folio format. This version offers a readable Bradford at last, with reduced text format and all the illustrations. The text is a fairly straightforward account of the Greenland voyage, with some good coverage of the natives encountered and especially of the Danish hospitality in several outports. Bradford proudly says at the outset that his ship, the Panther, was a temperance ship for all crew and passengers.
p. 21, July 14, 1869: At first it was plain sailing, the ship encountering only a hard knock now and then. But on getting out into the open water a long heavy swell set everything in motion. Lulled into a feeling of security by the comparative quiet of the last few days, trunks, boxes, books, bottles, had been lying loose, and as the Panther met this swell they seemed endued with life.
p. 24: “News,” so considered, is far from new when it reaches Greenland; but Dr. Rudolph, at Upernavik, manages to maintain the semblance of old associations, after a very original plan of his own. He receives by the store-ship files of all the Danish daily papers for the previous year, and every morning with his coffee takes from the file papers of the same date, and goes through the form of discussing the current topics of the day.
p. 147: alludes to a choice library of Dr. Rudolph at Upernavik.