June 23, 1923] 
Mr. Carée devotes a chapter to “ Wren and Greenwich 
Observatory,” but the contents are nearly all taken 
from Baily’s book on Flamsteed. That Wren designed 
the Octagon room seems certain, but he had nothing 
else to do with the building or the equipment of the 
_ Observatory. This chapter is illustrated by two 
plates giving most interesting views of the buildings 
and of the interior of the Octagon room, copied from 
some old engravings given by Baily to the Royal 
Observatory. It seems, however, very doubtful 
whether the telescope for observing sun-spots by 
projection and the large quadrant (Plate XXI.) can 
have been at Greenwich in Wren’s time; at least 
it is not likely that the quadrant is the 1o-foot quadrant 
made by Hooke and declared by Flamsteed to be 
useless. But if Wren had been able to devote some 
of his time to astronomy, he would doubtless have 
_ made his mark in that science. It should not be 
forgotten (we have not found it mentioned in the 
__ book under review) that Wren (as well as Hooke and 
_ Halley) had realised independently of Newton, that 
attraction if it existed must be according to the law 
of the inverse square of the distance, and this was 
expressly acknowledged by Newton (Princ. lib, I. 
Prop. IV. Scholium). The silly and _ slanderous 
accusation of plagiarism made by Hearne the antiquary 
against Newton, in favour of Hooke and Wren, should 
not have been quoted by the author (p. 11) without 
comment. 
The book is beautifully and most profusely illustrated 
and will appeal to many different classes of readers. 
J. L.E. D; 
: 
















The Future of Arctic Lands. 
The Northward Course of Empire. By Vilhjalmar 
Stefansson. Pp. xx+274+8 plates. (London and 
Sydney : G. G. Harrap and Co. Ltd., 1922.) 7s. 6d. 
net. 
R. STEFANSSON shows, with characteristic 
force of expression and wealth of example, that 
every effort to colonise the frontiers of the familiar world 
the popular repute of the Arctic regions as a survival 
of the ancient shrinking of the Mediterranean peoples 
from cold and darkness, intensified by tales of the 
sufferings of explorers, which he holds to have been 
partly unnecessary and partly exaggerated. On the 
other hand, he shows that throughout the whole history 
_ of civilisation the centres of political power of the most 
advanced races have undergone a steady displacement 
northward from the neighbourhood of the tropic. He 
holds that this migration of the dominant races is 
accompanied by an increase in physical and mental 
NO. 2799, VOL. 111] 
has been retarded by fear bred of ignorance. He regards | 
NATURE 
839 
vigour, and he would perhaps be inclined to agree with 
Richard Chenevix’s bold generalisation of ninety years 
ago, that character is expressible as a mathematical 
function of latitude. 
Mr. Stefansson indicates that the natural northward 
course of civilisation is now being held up by a super- 
stitious tradition maintained by faulty educational 
works based on misleading narratives of polar travel. 
He insists on the fact that Montana, Dakota, and Mani- 
toba are far colder in winter than the low-lying coasts 
and islands of the Arctic Sea or the North Pole itself. 
Yet in these far severer climates children go to school 
daily in temperatures that a polar explorer is very rarely 
called upon to encounter, so that cold need not deter a 
sturdy people from moving north. 
The main object of the book is to combat this specific 
ignorance of polar conditions, and Mr. Stefansson enters 
on the struggle with Berserk gusto. He firmly believes 
that, even after the mineral resources of Arctic lands 

| —e.g. the gold, coal, copper, iron, and oil of Alaska 
and Northern Canada—have been exhausted or have at 
least lost their sensational attractive power, there 
remains a vaster and more permanent source of wealth 
for the outer world to draw upon in the incredible 
richness of millions of square miles of Arctic meadows. 
These are grazed over by herds of reindeer and ovibos, 
capable of forming the basis of the largest meat and 
wool production the world has ever seen. In fact, the 
author goes so far as to hold that Arctic meat alone can 
furnish a safeguard against famine on an unheard-of 
scale when the population of the world has doubled 
itself a century hence. 
The facts cited as to the growth of reindeer herds in 
Alaska, and the popularity of reindeer flesh in large 
cities, are most impressive, and the prospects of the 
Hudson Bay Company’s experiment in rearing the 
ovibos (its old name of musk ox is banned) in Baffin 
Land appear to be extremely favourable. Mr. 
Stefansson points out that the failure of farmers in 
northern lands has almost always been due to their 
attempts to introduce plants and animals natural to 
southern localities, whereas success as surely attends 
their efforts when they devote their attention to those 
native to the climate. 
An interesting chapter is devoted to the prospects of 
Polar travel by aircraft and submarines, and it would 
almost appear that the adventures of Capt. Nemo under 
the ice in Jules Verne’s old story were coming true. 
Mr. Stefansson is usually careful to base his calcula- 
tions and projects on established facts and the opinion 
of experts ; but we fear that in one point he has failed 
to do so, and we cannot accept his prediction on p, 186, 
that “ordinary tramp steamers” can ever navigate 
the ice-encumbered Arctic waters. Mr. Stefansson 
