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THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY EXPEDITION TO 

 SPITSBERGEN, 1921. 



By Julian S, Huxley, 



Fellow of Neiv College, Oxford. 



The Oxford University Expedition to Spitsbergen grew out of 

 tlie desire of some Oxford ornithologists to visit Arctic lands. 

 They secured the co-operation of zoologists, and finally it was 

 decided to equip an all-round scientific expedition, including 

 also geologists, glaciologists, an exploring and surveying party, 

 and botanists. 



Many scientific expeditions had previously been despatched 

 to Spitsbergen, but most of these had been concerned either with 

 exploration, mapping and descriptive geology, or with the 

 collection of animals and plants. The chief strength of the 

 Oxford expedition was biological, and its aim on this side was 

 not so much the recording of old or the discovery of new species 

 as a study of life in the Arctic from an ecological standpoint. 



The biological side was again divisible into a strong ornitho- 

 logical section led by the Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain, and a 

 general section led by Mr. Carr-Saunders and Mr. Huxley. The 

 ornithologists made a very thorough survey of many localities 

 on the west and north coasts, and brought back a fine collection 

 of eggs and skins, a set of photographs of Arctic birds unsur- 

 passed for variety and number, largely taken by Mr. Seton 

 Gordon, the expedition's official photographer, and important 

 notes on the habits of many little-known species. The only 

 ornithological work on such a scale previously carried out in 

 Spitsbergen was that of Konig, and the Oxford expedition 

 extended and amended his results in many particulars. 



In the section of general biology, thanks to the co-operation of 

 the botanists, Messrs. Walton and Summerhayes, with the zoolo- 

 gists, Messrs. Carr-Saunders, Elton and Huxley, considerable 

 progress has been made with the study of the ecology of Arctic 

 land and fresh-water animals. In the Arctic the conditions 



