,3,,. SOME NEW BOOKS. 221 



a difficult arrete in an hour, a rate which the astounded Whymper 

 declares to be "simply divine ; " but, as Humboldt always spoke of the 

 summit as single instead of double, and as he said that there were no 

 glaciers upon the mountain, whereas the whole summit is clad with 

 them, and it is impossible to reach anything like the height Humboldt 

 claimed to have done without crossing a good lot of glacier, it seems 

 difficult to know what weight should be attached to his account. But 

 before we dismiss it as an entire fiction we may remember that in 

 much later times Professor Whitney and a party of American geolo- 

 gists succeeded in surveying Mount Shasta, and reporting a complete 

 absence of glaciers, whereas all subsequent visitors have found 

 several. 



Another story that has long done duty in our text-books, on 

 Humboldt's authority, is that of the subterranean fish erupted from 

 Cotopaxi alive and dead, and in such vast numbers that, if his 

 account had been accepted literally, geologists would have included 

 fried fish among the normal volcanic ejectamenta. But after Mr. 

 '^hy va'pex's expose, Cyclopium cyclopum may join the resurrected rotifers 

 as the latest addition to the rank of zoological fables. 



The general results of Mr. Whymper's expedition are certainly of 

 very high value ; he has cleared the ground of many serious blunders, 

 and given us a good basis of solid fact and accurate observation which 

 must prove of permanent service in further explorations of the 

 geography, geology, and zoology of the Ecuadorian Andes. Mr. 

 Whymper has obviously been to enormous trouble, both in the field 

 and at home ; but we hope he feels that the labour has not been 

 excessive, for his scientific results are of great value, and he has 

 issued them in a work so well illustrated, bound, and printed, that 

 it will at once take its place as one of the choicest classics in the 

 literature of mountaineering. 



J. W. G. 



The Labrador Coast : A Journal of Two Summer Cruises to that Region. With 

 Notes on its Early Discovery, on the Eskimo, on its Physical Geography, 

 Geology, and Natural History. By A. S. Packard. 8vo. Pp. 513. With 

 Maps and Illustrations. New York ; N. D. C. Hodges ; London : Kegan Paul, 

 Trench, Triibner & Co., 1891. Price i8s. 



Since in these days of specialism it is but seldom that an author is 

 qualified to write of a comparatively unknown region alike from the 

 geographical, geological, and zoological points of view. Dr. Packard's 

 work ought to appeal to a wider circle of readers than the majority of 

 books of scientific travel. And so well has the author accomplished 

 his task, that the work remaining for future investigators of the 

 Labrador Coast will be mainly confined to filling in the details of Dr. 

 Packard's masterly sketch. The interior of the country, however, 

 still offers a wide field of investigation to such hardy explorers as 

 care to brave an inclement climate, a rugged country, and the attacks of 

 the swarms of black-flies and mosquitoes which made life at times so 

 unbearable to Dr. Packard's party. 



It speaks well for the accuracy of the author's observations that 

 a large part of the work relates to cruises made on the coast as far 

 back as the years i860 and 1864, and that his descriptions of 

 the geological and zoological results of these two cruises are 

 reprinted, with but little addition and alteration, from the Memoirs 

 of the Boston Natural History Society for 1867. Other portions of 



