September, 1920] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



15 



BOOK REVIEW. 



Report of the Second Norwegian Arctic 

 Expedition in the "Fram," 1898-1902, 4 vol- 

 umes in 36 parts, large octavo, 1907-1919, 9 maps, 

 111 plates, and 2,071 pages of text. Published 

 by the Society of Arts and Sciences of Kristiania 

 (Videnskabs-Selskabet i Kristiania), at the ex- 

 pense of the Fridtjof Nansen Fund for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science. 



The separate reports of what is sometimes 

 known as the Sverdrup expedition have finally 

 been completed and issued in collected form. 

 The original papers have been published from time 

 to time since the return of the expedition eighteen 

 years ago, and well illustrate how the side lines 

 or by-products of such an enterprise may show 

 their value long after the more spectacular features 

 have been more or less forgotten. 



The First Norwegian Arctic expedition, under 

 Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, had the attainment of the 

 North Pole for its main object. After the return 

 of this e.xpedition, Captain Otto Sverdrup, who had 

 been the navigating officer of the Fram, returned 

 to the Arctic to explore and map portions of the 

 American Arctic island archipelago. The lands 

 explored by this expedition, Ellesmere island, and 

 the later discovered Axel Heiberg island, Amund 

 Ringnes island, and Ellef Ringnes island, are in 

 the territory of the Dominion of Canada, and their 

 history and resources should be of interest to Cana- 

 dians. The ship Fram was furnished by the Nor- 

 wegian government, and the remainder of the ex- 

 pense of the four years' expedition, about $60,000, 

 was borne by Consul Axel Heiberg and the Ringnes 

 brothers of Kristiania, and their names are per- 

 petuated in the new lands discovered. The ex- 

 pedition explored and mapped about 100,000 square 

 miles, the greater part of which is new territory. 



Captain Sverdrup was assisted by fifteen men. 

 The scientific results were largely the work of G. 

 I. Isachsen the cartographer, H. G. Simmons the 

 botanist, Edward Bay the zoologist, and Per Schei 

 the geologist. In reviewing their work, in Science, 

 August, 1920, Prof. Charles Schuchert (Yale 

 University) says: "A better fitted and a more 

 loyal band of hard workers both men of science 

 and sailors never explored unknown lands. . . . 

 It is a source of regret that Per Schei did not live 

 to see the final working up of his grand geologic 

 collections, since all attest that this warm-hearted 

 man of science collected a vast mass of material; 

 in fact it may be said of him that he made acces- 

 sible to paleontology and stratigraphy more inform- 

 ation of an exact nature than all previous Arctic 

 expeditions. 



"These four volumes, together with Captain 

 Sverdrup's popular account, entitled "New Land" 

 (2 volumes, 1904), should be in every scientific 

 library, not only because of their great intrinsic 

 value, but because we owe it to our Norwegian 

 friends thus to show our appreciation of their 

 splendid achievement." 



The astronomical and geodetic observations are 

 worked up by G. I. Isachsen, (141 pages), ter- 

 restrial magnetism by A. S. Steen (82 pages), 

 meteorology by H. Mohn (399 pages). The 

 botanical collections by Dr. H. G. Simmons (Uni- 

 versity of Lund, Sweden) amounted to over 50,000 

 specimens, and are described in eight papers. Dr. 

 Simmons described the vascular flora, about 190 

 species, showing that Ellesmere island has at least 

 1 1 5 flowering plants which in general are a con- 

 tinuation of the flora of Greenland although there 

 is a strong American trait that has come from the 

 west. E. Rostrup lists 80 forms of fungi. From 

 over 7,000 specimens of lichens, O. V. Darbishire 

 describes 161 forms. N. Bryhn describes 290 

 forms of moses, of which 49 are new. F. Ingvarson 

 identified samples of driftwood from the shores and 

 elevated beach lines, and discusses their origin and 

 source. 18 species of migrant water birds and 5 

 species of land birds are recorded, as well as 9 

 kinds of mammals (polar bear, wolf, fox, ermine, 

 glutton, lemming, hare, muskox, and reindeer). Of 

 the Crustacea, G. O. Sars describes 1 54 kinds, in- 

 cluding copepods (71), amphipods (38), isopods 

 (11), and ostracods (11). H. H. Gran discusses 

 the phytoplankton, which form the bulk of animal 

 subsistence. 53 species of Mollusca and one 

 braciopod are described by J. A. Grieg; about 50 

 kinds of bottom-living Foraminifera by H. Kiaer; 

 and 77 species of bryozoans by O. Nordgaard. The 

 Echinodermata are described by Grieg and in- 

 clude 2 crinoids, 6 starfish, 6 ophiurids, 4 holothur- 

 ians, and 1 sea-urchin. The remainder of the 

 marine fauna include 2 sponges, 4 actinians, 6 sea- 

 squirts, 10 hydroids, 4 medusae, and 44 kinds of 

 polychaete worms. 



The very rich geologic results of Per Schei 

 were remarkable for the abundance and variety of 

 the fossils collected, and also for the record of the 

 distribution of the various formations. These showed 

 that the Archeozoic granites of Ellesmere island are 

 overlain by about 14,000 feet of Paleozoic strata, 

 beginning with Upper Cambrian, followed by basal 

 Ordovician (Beekmantown), middle Ordovician, 

 early and middle Silurian, and an extraordinary 

 development of Devonian. The Carboniferous is 

 known only in the highest Pennsylvanian rocks, 



