JUNE 19, 1902] 
‘€(3) The equipment was comprehensive, including naphtha 
launches, small boats and canoes, camping outfits, stenographers, 
photographers, and extra men for oarsmen and helpers, thereby 
reducing toa minimum the time necessary to accomplish material 
results. . . .” 
To indicate what was accomplished let us again quote 
Dr. Merriam :— 
‘* During the two months’ cruise a distance of nine thousand 
miles was traversed. Frequent landings were made, and, no 
matter how brief, were utilised by the artists, photographers, 
geologists, botanists, zoologists, and students of glaciers. From 
time to time longer stops were made and camping parties were 
put ashore that more thorough work might be done. Thus one 
or more camping parties operated at Glacier Bay, Yakutat Bay, 
Prince William Sound, Kadiak Island, the Alaska Peninsula 
and the Shumagin Islands. Large and important collections 
were made, including series of the small mammals and birds of 
the coast-region,”— 
and here we may break off to note that Burroughs, in a 
later part of the volume (p. 62), mentions that one day 
the ship “ made a voyage of sixty miles to enable our 
collectors to take up some traps, the total catch of which 
proved to be nine mice,”’— 
‘enormous numbers of marine animals and seaweeds, and by 
far the largest collections of insects and land-plants ever brought 
from Alaska. There were also small collections of fossil shells 
and fossil plants. In working up this material the services of 
more than fifty specialists have been secured, and although the 
task is by no means finished, thirteen genera and nearly six 
hundred species new to science have already been discovered 
and described. The natural history specimens have not merely 
enriched our museums, they have increased many fold our know- 
ledge of the fauna and flora of Alaska... . 
«* A number of glaciers not previously known, as well as many 
others which had been vaguely or imperfectly known, were 
mapped, photographed and described, and much evidence was 
gathered of changes that have occurred in their length and size. 
. .. In Prince William Sound a new fiord fifteen miles in 
length and abounding in glaciers was discovered, photographed, 
and mapped. . . . The large number of photographs taken by 
the professional photographers on board was materially increased 
by cameras belonging to various members of the Expedition, and 
in all not less than five thousand photographs were secured. 
These cover many parts of the coast region from British Columbia 
to Bering Strait, and constitute incomparably the best series of 
pictures of the region thus far obtained,” 
The publication of the results has been undertaken in 
the same well-ordered and liberal spirit. The two volumes 
before us 
‘contain the narrative of the expedition and a few papers on 
subjects believed to be of general interest. The technical 
matter, in the fields of geology, paleontology, zoology and 
botany, will follow in a series of illustrated volumes. Twenty- 
two special papers, based on collections made by the Expedition, 
have been already published in the Proceedings of the Washington 
Academy of Sciences, and others will follow. All this material 
will be brought together in the volumes of the technical series.” 
Having dealt somewhat fully with the organisation and 
methods of this truly exemplary expedition, let us now 
glance briefly over the principal contents of the book, 
which constitute the best general description of Alaska 
hitherto published. 
The narrative of the cruise by John Burroughs (pp. 
1-118) is a piece of literary workmanship such as only 
an able and well-practised writer with a keen eye for 
nature and under the stimulus of scenes new to him could 
have penned. This part will appeal more strongly to the 
general reader than to the man of science, for to the 
latter the blending of emotional sentiment with technical 
description, however skilfully done, can rarely fail to give 
a sense of incompatibility and distortion. As literature, 
however, these word-pictures are excellent; we will 
quote, as an example, Mr. Burroughs’ impression of a 
distant view of Mount St. Elias (p. 55) :— 
““The base and lower ranges had been visible for some 
time, bathed in clear sunshine, but a heavy canopy of dun. 
NO. 1703, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 
177 
coloured clouds hung above us and stretched away toward the 
mountain, dropping down there in many curtain-like folds, 
hiding the peak. But the scene-shifters were at work ; slowly 
the heavy mass of clouds that limited our view yielded and was 
spun off by the air-currents till at last the veil was completely 
rent, and there, in the depths of clear air and sunshme, the vast 
mass soared to heaven. 
‘© There is sublimity in the sight of a summer thunder-head 
with its great white and dun convolutions rising up for miles 
against the sky, but there is more in the vision of a jagged 
mountain crest piercing the blue at even a lesser height. This 
is partly because it is a much rarer spectacle, but mainly because 
it is a display of power that takes greater hold of the imagination. 
That lift heavenward of the solid crust of the earth, that aspira- 
tion of the insensate rocks, that effort of the whole range, as it 
were, to carry one peak into heights where all may not go— 
eyery lower summit seeming to second it and shoulder it forward 
till it stands there in a kind of serene astronomic solitude and 
remoteness—is a vision that always shakes the heart of the 
beholder.” 
The general narrative is succeeded by a series of pro- 
fusely illustrated articles on special subjects. First we 
have “Notes on the Pacific Coast Glaciers,’ by John 
Muir (pp. 119-135), who was one of the earliest explorers 
of the Alaskan ice-fields and is able to compare the 
present limits ofsome of the glaciers with their extent 
in 1879, when he first visited them. He states that 
in Glacier Bay, 
“the Hugh Miller and Muir have receded about two miles in 
the last twenty years, the Grand Pacific about four, and the 
Geikie, Rendu and Carrol perhaps from seven to ten miles.” 
The remaining portion of the first volume (pp. 137-. 
183) is occupied by a concise account of the Indians and 
Eskimo of the Alaska coast region, by Dr. G. B. Grinnell, 
closing with the usual lament over the destruction of the 
weaker race by the influx of the horde of gold-seeking 
white men, “uncontrolled and uncontrollable.” 
The second volume opens witha history of the dis- 
covery and exploration of Alaska by the veteran Dr. 
W. H. Dall, whose thirteen previous visits to the territory 
render him thoroughly qualified to deal with the subject. 
He treats fully of the early period up to the trans- 
ference of the country by Russia to the United States in 
1867, but sums up the subsequent events in a few 
sentences, remarking (p. 203) that 
‘“a history of conditions in Alaska from 1867 to 1897 is yet to 
be written, and when written few Americans will be able to read 
it without indignation. A country of which it could be said 
with little exaggeration that 
* Never a law of God or man 
Runs north of fifty-five’ : 
a country where no man could make a legal will, own a home- 
stead or transfer it, or so much as cut wood for his fire without 
defying a Congressional prohibition: where polygamy and 
slavery and the lynching of witches prevailed, with no legah 
authority to stay or punish criminals; such in great part has 
Alaska been for thirty years.” 
He notes also :— 
“¢To one conversant with the facts, one of the most amusing 
things in current literature is the placid innocence of many a 
casual traveler or gold hunter, who pours out his tale of ex- 
periences in the confident belief that nothing of the kind is on 
record. A bibliography, far from complete, yet with fully 4000 
titles, does not cover the publications in books and serials upon 
the Territory and its adjacent regions.” 
The next article is on “ Days among Alaska Birds,” by 
Mr. Charles Keeler (pp. 205-234), richly illustrated with 
coloured plates. Many readers will be somewhat 
astonished to learn that one of the humming-birds is 
found abundantly as far north as Juneau and Sitka, 
and will feel with Mr. Keeler that the bird “seemed 
singularly out of place.” 
““ Indeed, even after reading that the tiny rufous humming- 
bird journeyed so far into the northern wilds, it was with almost 
a shock of surprise that we saw the dainty creature, which we 
