The Land of the Long Night

The Land of the Long Night, by
Paul du Chaillu

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Title: The Land of the Long Night
Author: Paul du Chaillu
Illustrator: M. J. Burns
Release Date: September 22, 2007 [EBook #22727]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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The Land of the Long Night

[Illustration: Your Friend, Paul Du Chaillu]

The
Land of the Long Night
By
Paul Du Chaillu
Author of "The Viking Age," "Ivar the Viking," "The Land of the
Midnight Sun," "Exploration in Equatorial Africa," etc.

Illustrated by M. J. Burns

New York Charles Scribner's Sons 1901

Copyright, 1899, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.

University Press: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

TO
EX-CHIEF JUSTICE CHARLES P. DALY
As I write this dedication, dear Judge Daly, a flood of recollections
comes over me of unbroken friendship and great kindness on your part
and that of your wife, whose memory I venerate and cherish. This
friendship has never faltered for a moment, but has grown stronger and

stronger as the years have rolled by. Fortunate is the man who wins for
himself two such friends! I have never ceased to remember the warm
interest you and your noble-hearted wife took from the first in my
explorations in Africa. I can only give you in return love and devotion
for all the kindness I have experienced at your hands.
Your devoted friend,
PAUL DU CHAILLU.
September 1, 1899.

Introduction
MY DEAR YOUNG FOLKS:
Friend Paul has led many of you into the great Equatorial Forest of
Africa. We met there many strange and wild tribes of men, and lived
among cannibals and dwarfs or pygmies. We hunted together, and
killed many elephants, fierce gorillas, leopards, huge crocodiles,
hippopotami, buffalos, antelopes, strange-looking monkeys, wonderful
chimpanzees of different varieties,--some of them white, others yellow
or black,--and many other kinds of animals.
In this book I am going to take you to a very different part of the world.
I am going to lead you towards the far North, to "The Land of the Long
Night,"--a land where during a part of the year the sun is not seen, for it
does not rise above the horizon, and in some parts of the country does
not show itself for sixty-seven days, during which time the moon, stars,
and the aurora borealis take its place.
"The Land of the Long Night" is a land of darkness, of snow, of wind,
and at times of intense cold; and we shall have a long journey before us,
and shall have to change horses and vehicles at many post stations, and
at those places we shall get meals and lodgings.
When once in "The Land of the Long Night," we shall roam far and

wide--east, west, north--over a vast trackless region, covered with deep
snow, drawn by reindeer instead of horses, and sometimes we shall
walk or run with skees, which are the snowshoes of that country, and
very unlike those used by our Indians.
We shall sleep on the snow in bags made of reindeer skins, follow the
nomadic Laplander and his reindeer, live with him and sleep in his kåta
or tent. We shall hunt wolves, bears, and different kinds of foxes and
other animals, and sail and fish on the stormy Arctic seas.
We shall have plenty of fun, in spite of the snow, the terrific wind, and
the cold we shall encounter; and, thanks to the houses of refuge which
we shall find in our times of peril, we shall not perish in these Arctic
regions. But woe to the man who wanders in that far northern land
without a guide or without knowing where these houses or farms of
refuge are to be found, for he will surely succumb in some one of the
storms that are certain to overtake him.
We shall cross the Swedish and Norwegian mountains of the far North,
which rise to a height of several thousand feet, and come to the desolate
shores of the Arctic Ocean, and there live among the people.
In a sunny room at the Marlborough in Broadway I have written this
book. It is a dear little room, made bright at night with electric lights,
and full of delightful reminiscences of cheerful evenings with friends,
all