LITERARY NOTICES. 



273 



from the intrinsic beauty of most of the 

 creatures with which he has to deal, all the 

 accompaniments of his work are aesthetic, 

 and removed from those more or less of- 

 fensive features which are so often neces- 

 sarily incidental to the study of anatomy 

 and physiology in the higher animals." 

 This book is Volume XLIX of the " Inter- 

 national Scientific Series." 



Geology and the Deluge. By the Duke 

 of Argyll. Glasgow : Wilson & Mc- 

 Cormick. Pp. 47. 



This is the substance of a lecture deliv- 

 ered in Glasgow, in which is considered the 

 question whether any scientific evidence 

 exists that there has occurred a deluge, or 

 a great submergence of the land under the 

 sea over a considerable area of the globe ; 

 of a temporary character; accompanied 

 with the destruction of animal life ; since 

 the birth or development of man ; in oth- 

 er words, corresponding with the flood de- 

 scribed in the Bible. The author finds evi- 

 dence of such a flood, not only in universal 

 tradition, but also in many superficial geo- 

 logical facts ; among them, the existence of 

 beds of recent marine gravel on mountain- 

 tops in Wales and other countries ; the 

 loess, with its abundant land-shells ; the 

 extinct mammalian fauna of Europe, of the 

 sudden destruction of which he adduces 

 many evidences ; and the masses of mam- 

 moths in New Siberia. The evidences of 

 the contemporaneousness of man with the 

 phenomena are discussed, and the question 

 of his antiquity incidentally. The time 

 of the flood in question is believed by the 

 author to have been about the close of the 

 glacial period. 



The Rescue of Greelt. By Commander 

 W. S. Schley, U. S. Navy, and Profes- 

 sor J. R. Soley, U. S. Navy. New 

 York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 

 2*7*7, with Illustrations and Maps. Price, 

 $3. 



This book gives a plain account of the 

 Greely expedition, of the attempts that 

 failed to relieve it, and of the one that final- 

 ly succeeded. It has been the aim of the 

 writers to describe the events simply as 

 they occurred, and avoid all criticism of the 

 pe-rsons who took part in them. This they 

 have done, in the colorless manner in which 

 vol. xxvii. 18 



all stories ought to be told on which the 

 world is to be called upon to pass an im- 

 partial judgment. The relation is begun 

 with a general description of the region in 

 which the search was prosecuted, as " the 

 gateway of the Polar Sea," and an account 

 of the circumpolar stations which were 

 established under the auspices of the In- 

 ternational Polar Conference, with which 

 Greely's expedition eventually became con- 

 nected. Then are given accounts of Gree- 

 ly's Lady Franklin Bay expedition and the 

 unsuccessful relief expeditions of 18S2 and 

 1884, and the detailed account of the ex- 

 pedition under Commander Schley which 

 succeeded in bringing back the survivors 

 of Greely's command. Of the spirit in 

 which the last expedition was prosecuted, 

 the author of the book says that all of the 

 officers and men " knew that the object of 

 the voyage was something above and be- 

 yond the ordinary calls of service, and . . . 

 felt an earnestness of purpose which a 

 mere exploring expedition would hardly 

 have called forth. At any rate, whatever 

 may have been their feelings, they certainly 

 evinced a determination to spare no pains, 

 to incur any exposure, to assume any re- 

 quired risk, and to be unflagging in watch- 

 ing for opportunities to gain a mile, a yard, 

 or a foot, on the journey toward Greely 

 and his party." 



In the Lena Delta. A Narrative of the 

 Search for Lieutenant -Commander De 

 Long and his Companions, followed by 

 an Account of the Greely Relief Expedi- 

 tion. By George W. Melville. Edited 

 by Melville Philips. Boston : Hough- 

 ton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 497, with Maps 

 and Illustrations. Price, $2.50. 



Op the world's heroes, the men of the 

 Jeannette Expedition were certainly among 

 the noblest, the sturdiest, and the most en- 

 during. Whether we regard the single in- 

 cident of the attitude in which Lieutenant 

 De Long's body was found, with the arm 

 frozen stiff in the position in which it was 

 raised and bent to cast his journal to a safer 

 place ; or wl ether we consider the trials and 

 sufferings and pluck of Melville's party, of 

 eleven men, during their trying and lonely 

 journey we can almost, and when we take 

 note, as well as of these incidents, of the 

 history of the expedition as a whole, we can 



