November 26, 1900] 



SCIENCE 



761 



people, throw a grim and sinister side light on 

 Arctic exploration as carried on hy Americans. 

 In the Yale Alumni Weekly of October 8, p. 

 56, for instance, is a highly interesting human 

 document from the pen of Mr. George Borup, 

 a young man who accompanied Lieutenant 

 Peary on his recent expedition. He recites 

 some of his experiences as follows: 



. . . Here [at Cape Morris Jesup, past Lock- 

 wood's furthest of 83° 24'] we stayed two weeks. 

 . . . Here we lived high, killing 47 musk oxen 

 in four hunts, and dogs and men had sirloin and 

 tenderloin all the time. As none of us had had 

 any fresh meat in three months it was more than 

 good. I got mixed up in one herd of sixteen and 

 took some good photos of them. Then we killed 

 them all by gun. I beat all records, Duffy's 

 included, when I got within ten feet of a big bull, 

 held at bay by two dogs, to take his photo, and 

 he charged the dogs, which happened to be on a 

 line between us. I only hit the high spots for a 

 hundred yards or so. Coming back . . . went off 

 on a hunting trip. Killed four musk oxen, 100 

 miles away, and brought back a calf on the sledge 

 alive to the boat, only to have it die the next day. 

 When we got down to Eskimo land we put in 

 about four days walrus hunting. In all about 

 72 were secured. 



It thus appears that the indiscriminate kill- 

 ing of the musk oxen has been the common 

 diversion of Americans in the north. Other 

 explorers have been more thoughtful, notably 

 the Swedes, who made an unsuccessful attempt 

 to domesticate these splendid animals in Lap- 

 land. It is well enough known that the musk 

 oxen once spread southward to the Hudson 

 Bay country, and westward to the Mackenzie 

 Kiver, and that they are now on the verge of 

 extinction, but a few hundred being perchance 

 all that are left. In short, Mr. Borup does not 

 appear to have been aware of the deadly results 

 following in the train of his hunting. 



But it is difficult to understand such a re- 

 cital, such an exhibition of the " mord lust " 

 by any human being, leaving out of account 

 the unwitting confession that this slaughter 

 took place just about the calving time, or a 

 little before in the case of the larger herds, 

 it might seem. And did this finsJly compas- 

 sionate hunter expect to suckle the last musk 

 ox he saw, the little calf he took back to the 

 boat, " only to have it die " I 



In the main, however, we hold Lieutenant 

 Peary directly responsible. He should have 

 issued orders to protect these animals, and if 

 our Arctic exploration had been carried on on 

 a higher and more scientific plane this would 

 have been done. Nor do I hesitate to say that 

 in my judgment it was of more importance 

 to avoid the slaughter of these musk oxen and 

 walrus than it has proven to march across the 

 ice, only to bring back the records of a scanty 

 performance. The man who is broad minded 

 and thoughtful and merciful, and careful of 

 his temper, and who describes with the needed 

 care a single new beetle or brachiopod, deserves 

 better than these notoriety-seeking types of 

 scientists. Indeed it is time that the halo 

 they wear should be more carefully examined. 

 For my part, I have never seen the day when 

 I did not find it easier to work in the field 

 than in the laboratory, and I believe it is so 

 with most scientific workers. 



There is, with the great increase in comfort 

 within recent years, relatively no more risk in 

 the glorious holiday that an Arctic exploration 

 can with ordinary forethought be made to 

 mean, than there is in more serious scientific 

 work indoors. 



In view of such pertinent facts it is greatly 

 to be hoped that future Arctic exploration will 

 be carried on in a more humane and scientific 

 spirit. 



G. E. WiELAND 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



The Science and Philosophy of the Organism. 



The Gifford Lectures before the University 



of Aberdeen. By Hans Driesch, Ph.D., 



Heidelberg. Vol. L, 1907, pp. xiii4-329; 



Vol. n., 1908, pp. xvi4-381. London, A. 



and C. Black. 



Das Kausalitdtsprohlem der Biologie. Von 



Dr. med. Friedrich Strecker, Privatdozent 



an der Universitat Breslau. Pp. viii + 153. 



Leipzig, Engeknann. 1907. 



Driesch's GifFord Lectures give the English 



reader his first introduction to an interesting 



and important movement in recent German 



thought — the rapprochement between biology 



and philosophy that has been taking place 



