Fighting the Polar Ice 



75 



"In the nesting time of the gulls and 

 loons, several of the sailors went up the 

 talus daily, dragging with them a long 

 ladder that they had constructed and, at 

 the risk of their lives, clambered up the 

 precipitous side of the great rock and 

 robbed the nests. Many of the eggs 

 were fresh, and when fried with the ham 

 we had found in the Duke's cache gave 

 us a breakfast not to be despised. 



"Eight brant and several hundred 

 loons were shot and added to our larder 



and sixteen great walruses and about the 

 same number of seals. Walrus liver was 

 considered a delicacy, but the meat 

 proper was rather tough and made one 

 think he was dining on automobile tires." 

 The party also shot a number of 

 ptarmigan, which is interesting as the 

 first recorded appearance of these birds 

 in the archipelago. Mr Fiala pays a 

 well-deserved tribute to Mr W. S. 

 Champ, the leader of the relief expedi- 

 tion of 1905. 



This volume is the fourth of the Geo- 

 graphical Library published by Double- 

 day, Page & Co. The fifth, "Nearest 

 the Pole," by Commander Robert E. 

 Peary, will appear in the early spring. 



GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 



Flashlights in the Jungle: A record of hunt- 

 ing adventures and of studies in wild life in 

 equatorial East Africa. By C. G. Schillings; 

 translated by Frederick Whyte. Illustrated 

 with 302 of the author's "untouched" photo- 

 graphs taken by day and night. New York : 

 Doubleday, Page & Company. 1906. $3.80 

 net. 



The most remarkable part of this very in- 

 teresting book are the pictures which are 

 snapshots at wild animals. Particularly won- 

 derful are the flashlights of "lions killing an 

 ox" (393) and of three full-grown lionesses 

 (356), and still another of a lioness about to 

 spring upon a donkey (378). There is also a 

 remarkable series of flashlights of groups of 

 zebra drinking at night (333, 337, 323) and a 

 picture of a rhinoceros with its young (231), 

 and two really wonderful pictures taken by 

 daylight at fifteen paces of rhinoceroses bathing 

 (205, 206). There is another series of giraffes 

 stalking through the forest, taken by daylight 

 (307, 321). The book is in fact full of rare 

 and unique pictures of all sorts of animals and 

 is worth many times the price for the pictures 

 alone. 



Herr Schillings' e.xperiences show that 

 photographing was often dangerous work. The 

 following description of photographing rhi- 

 noceroses is quoted : "Accompanied now by only 

 two of my bearers and two Masai, I succeeded 

 in approaching warily within 120 yards of them. 

 I had taken several pictures successfully with 

 my telephoto-lens, when suddenly for some 

 reason the animals stood up quickly, both 

 together, as is their wont. Almost simultane- 

 ously the farther of the two, an old cow, began 

 moving the front part of the body to and fro, 

 and then, followed by the bull with head high 

 in the air, came straight for me, full gallop. 

 I had instinctively felt what would happen, and 

 in a moment my rifle was in my hands and my 

 camera passed to my bearers. I fired six shots 

 and succeeded in bringing down both animals 

 twice as they rushed toward me. Great fur- 

 rows in the sand of the velt showed where they 

 fell. 



"My final shot I fired in the absolute certainty 

 that my last hour had come. It hit the cow in 

 the nape of the neck, and at the same moment I 

 sprang to the right, to the other side of the 

 brier bush. With astounding agility the rhi- 

 noceroses followed me, and half way round the 

 bush I found myself between the two animals. 

 It seems incredible, now that I tell the tale in 



