University of Toronto Press. Toronto 1984 1st edition. A very scarce edition. George Comer (1858-1937) served on several whaling ships, advancing to the rank of captain and voyaging into both the Arctic and Antarctic. He was born in Quebec City but moved with his family to Connecticut when he was five years old. He made his home in East Haddam and sailed from New London. The first of his fourteen Arctic voyages was made in 1875 as a green hand before the mast; and on his last, 1919, he lost his ship, the Finback, off Cape Fullerton in Hudson Bay. In this period, he also sailed five times into the Antarctic. He became interested in the Eskimos, who worked with the whalers and, as whaling became less profitable, hunted furs for the trade. During his many years of close association with the Eskimos, Comer made valuable observations and collections, and although he wrote only a few articles, much of his material was incorporated in the works of Franz Boas on the Hudson Bay-Baffin Island Eskimos. Comer's Midden near Thule, Greenland, was the find that first determined the Thule Culture. Comer began taking pictures in the Arctic in 1893, and a large collection of his photographs can be found at Mystic Seaport Museum. Illustrated cloth covered end boards. Mint condition. 271pp. 232 x 150mm