266 



NA TURE 



[July 20, 1905 



Hail fell on only 5 days throughout the whole period. 

 Rain can fall only from May to October, and July 

 has the greatest number of rainy days, also it is the 

 month which gives rise to the greatest amount of fog. 

 Very considerable care was taken to determine the 

 temperature of the Polar ice. but, naturally, much 

 difficulty was experienced in recovering the thermo- 

 meters from the bore-holes, in which they might be 

 frozen fast, while during the summer, the viscous ice 

 would close round them, requiring the thermometers 

 to be dug out. Neither is it easy to remove the 

 sources of error from the observations, especially from 

 the effects of brine contained in the ice, which was 

 apt to fill the bottom of the holes even during the 

 coldest season, whilst during the summer all the holes 

 were filled with briny or saline water, the salinity of 

 which decreased inversely as the temperature. This 

 brine percolated from a different level to that in which 

 the thermometer was placed. In the winter time the 

 temperature of the ice increased from the surface 

 downward, and therefore the brine at the bottom of 

 the hole was probably of too low a temperature. On 

 the other hand, in the summer time, the ice near the 

 surface was warmer than that lower down, and the 

 brine would be less saline, and consequently lighter in 

 the upper layers than in the deeper, so that in the 

 summer time the temperature reading would again 

 be too low. The result drawn from the observations is 

 that the surface of the ice, in all months with the 

 single exception of June, is warmer than the air. The 

 difference is greatest in December, amounting to 

 16° F. The surface of the ice, being covered, except 

 during a short time in summer, with snow, is pro- 

 tected from cooling by radiation upwards, and receiv-es 

 heat from the underlying warmer layers. This, no 

 doubt, is the main factor in the explanation, though 

 other causes are suggested by Prof. Mohn. 



The book contains also an account of the meteor- 

 ological observations made during the sledge expedi- 

 tion to Franz Josef Land in 1895-6. From this 

 account we can quote only one remark, which illus- 

 trates the determination of the leader of the expedi- 

 tion to secure an unbroken series of observations. 



■' We had no lantern for the reading of the thermo- 

 meter, and I tried in vain to construct one, which 

 would not burn more oil than we could atford to use. 

 But our eyes of course became graduallv trained to 

 see in the dark, and even in mid-winter, with no 

 moonlight, there was so much light reflected from 

 the snow that the column of the darkly coloured 

 Metaxylol was dimly visible, and also the' figures of 

 the thermometer scale, but not the division marks." 



Dr. Xansen therefore apologises for the absence 

 of the decimal reading, which is missing about the 

 time of new moon. The interest of the book is neces- 

 sarily largely centred in the fact that the crew of the 

 Fram laboured so diligently and so well to overcome 

 the difficulties that were imposed upon them by the 

 situation in which they were placed. To go up to the 

 crow's nest to take additional readings of the instru- 

 ments in dark, wintry weather seems to have been 

 a source of positive enjoyment to those who took part 

 in these observations. 



NO. 1864, VOL. 72] 



EUROPEAN AND ASIATIC GEESE. 

 The Geese of Europe and Asia. By Sergius 

 Alpheraky. Pp. viii+198; 24 plates. (London: 

 Rowland Ward, Ltd., 1905.) Price 2I. ^s. net. 

 A T the present day most works on ornithology of 

 -^*- a general character are of little permanent value 

 because the broad outlines of the northern fauna have 

 already been adequately dealt with. W'hat we want, 

 and what we so seldom see, are complete life-histories 

 of separate groups of birds, adequately illustrated and 

 described by ornithologists who are both well 

 acquainted with them in the field and are capable 

 of summarising their labours in an accurate scientific 

 account. To do this a very large series of birds 

 must be collected, examined and digested, and this 

 means years of travelling and study with little 

 monetary reward as the result. Nevertheless, the 

 works of such men are of great and permanent value, 

 although their costly nature must ever be a constant 

 drawback to the producer. No good form of colour 

 printing is cheap, and as this is a sine qua non in 

 works of this kind, the resiilts can only pass into the 

 hands of a public " fit but few." 



The latest of these monographs is that of " The 

 Geese of Europe and Asia," by Mr. S. Alphcrakv. 

 and the Russian naturalist is to be congratulated in 

 giving us the first detailed account of this interesting 

 and, we may say literally, confusing group of birds. 

 It is an admirable treatise, full of research in field 

 and museum, and the work of one who has carefully 

 studied the subject from all points of view. There 

 are twenty-four coloured plates by Mr. F. W. 

 Frohawk, which are unfortunately only moderately 

 successful. Twenty-one of these represent the 

 different kinds of geese described by the author, and 

 for the most part the lithography is weak and hard, 

 and evidently does not do justice to the artist's careful 

 work; whilst the three plates representing the bills 

 of four various kinds are excellent, and will be of 

 the greatest use both to sportsmen and naturalists in 

 the determination of species. The frontispiece to the 

 work represents the assemblage of white-fronted and 

 red-breasted geese on a sandspit, and is from the 

 brush of Dr. Sushkin. The idea of movement exhibit- 

 ing the various attitudes into which these birds throw 

 themselves is ven,- fairly represented, but the technical 

 work of painting and the drawing of some of the 

 wmgs, as well as the general composition, leave 

 much to be desired. It seems a thousand pities that 

 chroniolithography is a dying art, and that no firm 

 in Europe is capable of turning out first-class work 

 except W. Greve, of Beriin. For all we know, these 

 drawings by Dr. Sushkin and Mr. Frohawk may 

 have been soft and truthful representations of nature, 

 but here we only see hard and black lines such as 

 nature never shows. 



Mr. .Alpheraky is evidently a keen sportsman as 

 well as a good naturalist, and he rightly holds a 

 high view of the remarkable intelligence of this class 

 of birds. 



" Geese," he says, " afford one of the most difficult 

 kinds of fowling. However cunning man may be, he 



