In Search of the Unknown

In Search of the Unknown opens with Robert W. Chambers's sly, mock-scientific wit, but beneath the irony lies a genuine thrill of discovery: the possibility that nature still hides creatures thought lost forever. A former government man newly assigned to the Bronx Park Zoological Gardens is drawn from routine paperwork into an increasingly improbable expedition when Professor Farrago shows him a letter from Burton Halyard of Black Harbor, who claims to keep living great auks, along with rumors of an "amphibious biped" in the sea. Skeptical but intrigued, the narrator travels north through remote forests and rail lines to a lonely coast where local hints, including the teasing warnings of Francis Lee, deepen the sense of mystery. At Halyard's cliffside home, he finds not fraud but wonder: two great auks and their chicks, proof that the impossible may be real. Dinner with the irritable, ailing Halyard and his young nurse reveals sharp humor, loneliness, and unexpected warmth, while talk of the harbor-master and a figure on the cliffs suggests still stranger secrets. As the adventure widens, the narrator's journey acquires a comic-romantic edge, complete with an odd, sad-eyed dog and the reluctant company of Miss Barrison, carrying him toward further uncertainty, curiosity, and danger. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.