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THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1895. 



TWO BOOKS OJV ARCTIC TRAVEL. 

 The Great Frozen Land. By Frederick George Jackson. 



(London : Macmillan and Co., 1895.) 

 Ice-bound on A'olgue': By Aubyn Trevor-Battye. 



(London : .Archibald Constable and Co., 1895.) 



BOTH these books are well worthy the attention of 

 every one interested in .\rctic travel. But little 

 was known about the island of Wai^'atz, and still less of 

 Kolguef. Both books are profusely illustrated, and pro- 

 vided with useful maps, but some of Mr. Jackson's 

 pictures are borrowed without acknowledgment. As 

 might naturally be expected, the Samoyedes occupy the j 

 greatest share of attention, but some information respect- [ 

 ing the fauna and flora of both islands is added, and the i 

 difficulties of travelling are dwelt upon with considerable | 

 detail. I 



The " Great Frozen Land " has been compiled by Mr. | 

 Arthur Montefiori from Mr. Jackson's journal of his trip 

 across the tundras of European Russia, from the Kara 

 Gates to the Varanger Fiord via Ust Zylma and Arch- 

 angel. In one of the appendices, Mr. Montefiori e.xplains 

 the object, method, and equipment of the Jackson- 

 Harmsworth Polar Expedition, and in another appendix 

 Mr. Joseph Russell Jeaffreson adds some notes on the 

 ornithological results of Mr. Jackson's journey. 



The narrative begins on .August 25, 1893, outside the 

 lagoon of the Pechora, and ends on January 18, 1894, at 

 Vadso, the frontier town of Norway. The greater part 

 of the book has been devoted to the Samoyedes, but the 

 real object of the journey was neither ornithological nor 

 anthropological, otherwise it would not have been under- 

 taken in winter. Mr. Jackson, as everybody knows, was 

 planning an expedition to Franz Josef Land, and the very 

 practical idea occurred to him that a winter among the 

 Samoyedes must give him a personal acquaintance with the 

 difficulties of land travelling in the high north, and might 

 suggest a successful way of battling with some of them. 



Mr. Jackson must be congratulated upon his editor. 

 Mr. Montefiori has spared no pains to make the book 

 interesting. The information which Mr. Jackson him- 

 self procured, especially on the island of Waigatz, is 

 valuable, and it is supplemented by quotations from 

 Rae, Gastrin von Strahlenberg, Purchas his Pilgrimes, 

 and the works of various other travellers. 



Unfortunately the ornithological part has not fallen 

 into such good hands. There are a dozen or more gross 

 mistakes in the spelling of the names of the birds, and 

 in addition there are some curious inconsistencies. In 

 the preliminary observations we are told that Mr. 

 Jackson brought home " of swans — not Bewick's — but the 

 common variety of that region," in spite of which the 

 only swan in the list (No. 28) is Bewick's swan. Mention 

 is made of grossbills. (Does the writer mean crossbills or 

 grosbeaks.') Of the little stint (No. 451 it is stated that 

 the only authentic eggs were those taken by MiddendorflT. 

 There is no reason to believe that Middendorfif ever 

 found the eggs of the little stint. The eggs which he 

 records as being those of Tringa minuta were probably 

 those of Tringa ruficollis and possibly those of 

 Tringa subminuta. The first identified eggs of the 

 NO. 1347, VOL. 52] 



little stint were taken on July 22, 1875, by Mr. Harvie- 

 Brown, on the eastern shores of the lagoon of the Pechora, 

 and a few days later a score had been obtained by the 

 expedition. Other eggs equally authentic have since 

 been taken in Lapland, Novaia Zemblia, and Kolguef. 

 It is extremely unlikely that the identification of the 

 species in the list is always correct. No. 10 doubtless 

 refers to Phyllosopus tristis, and not to the chiffchaff : 

 No. 1 2 is more likely to be a redpole than a siskin ; No. 39 

 is doubtless .-Egialitis hiaticula, and not jE. curonica, 

 and No. 53 is more likely to be Stercorarius richardsoni 

 than caiarractes. In but few cases is the exact locality 

 given, so that on the whole we must condemn the list 

 as worse than useless. 



Mr. Jackson went out on one of Captain Wiggins' 

 numerous voyages to the Yenesei, and was left on the 

 southern shore of the Yugorski Strait, with little or no 

 knowledge of the language of the country, to fight his 

 way as best he could. He was anxious to go to the 

 Yalmal Peninsula, but the Samoyedes declined to take 

 him there. .After reading the account of the difficulties 

 which Drs. Finsch and Brehm encountered, it must 

 be admitted that their decision was very wise. Mr. 

 Jackson was, therefore, obliged to content himself with 

 exploring Waigatz Island, and succeeded in making 

 the detour in a fortnight. The north of the island 

 enjoys a milder climate in winter than the south, the 

 Yugorski Straits being frozen over, whilst there is always 

 more or less open water in the Kara Gates. 



Winter came upon the adventurous traveller rather 

 suddenly during the second week of October, and on the 

 1 3th he began his sledge journey to the Norwegian frontier. 

 During the three months that this occupied, Mr. Jackson 

 lived among the Samoyedes and picked up many useful 

 hints as to dress, food, &c., as well as accustoming him- 

 self to camping out in the snow, travelling by sledge, 

 using snow-shoes, &c. This information and experience 

 will doubtless be of great value to him on his expedition 

 to Franz Josef Land. It is worth something to know, 

 instead of only to suspect, that you have pluck to face 

 the difficulties of Arctic travel, and every one wishes a 

 safe return to a traveller who with but small previous 

 experience has gone to try his luck in battling with 

 enormous difficulties. 



Mr. Trevor- Batty e's book treats of the journey which 

 he made in 1894 to a still less known part of the Arctic 

 Ocean. The island of Kolguef lies about 1 50 miles to 

 the west-north-west of the lagoon of the Pechora, whilst 

 the island of Waigatz lies about as far to the north-east 

 of that basin. Mr. Trevor-Battye sailed from Scotland 

 in the steam-yacht Saxon on June 2, and landed, with 

 his bird-skinner, on the west coast of Kolguef on the 

 i6th ; but as ill-luck would have it, they went again on 

 board, and did not finally leave the vessel until the 21st, 

 after the ice had driven them to the north of the island. 

 On .August 18, a Russian merchant from the Pechora 

 arrived on Kolguef, and Mr. Trevor-Battye and his com- 

 panion left in his boat on September 18, and after a 

 nineteen hours somewhat perilous sail, reached the main- 

 land. In two months he was back again in England. 



Mr. Trevor-Battye appears to have kept a copious 

 journal, and very interesting reading it is. It bears 

 internal evidence of having been written on the spot by 



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