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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 994 



poses to the penguin rookery at Cape Crozier. 

 The object of the trip was to secure eggs of 

 the emperor penguin — a species most nearly 

 approaching the primitive form of bird — at 

 such stages of early embryos as might make 

 clear the development of the emperors. A 

 journey in midwinter was necessary as the 

 singular emperor penguin is perhaps unique 

 in nesting at the coldest season of the year — 

 in temperatures approximating one hundred 

 degrees below the freezing point of water. 



Apart from the weather the trip involved 

 sledge travel of two hundred miles in almost 

 complete darkness, wherein the party must 

 cross the crevassed " barrier " and finally pass 

 through the chaotic pressure-ridges of the 

 shore-impinging sea floes. The journey was 

 made without disaster, and three eggs brought 

 safely home, but this scientific work tested 

 humanity to the utmost. The outward march 

 was made in eighteen days with an average 

 temperature of minus forty degrees — that of 

 frozen mercury. Only once did the tempera- 

 ture rise to zero Fahr., and a minimum of one 

 hundred and nine degrees below freezing was 

 experienced. A violent blizzard, in which an 

 hourly wind velocity of 84 miles was recorded 

 at the home station, blew away their tent and 

 unroofed their hut. Exposed to the fury of 

 the storm they were forty-eight hours without 

 food, uncertain of their fate. They finally re- 

 covered their tent, without which they must 

 have perished, for the blizzard temperature of 

 + 24° fell steadily to — 66° Fahr. For sci- 

 ence and not for fame was made a trip unsur- 

 passed as to the severity of cold and violence 

 of storm successfully endured by a field party. 



The scientific appendices to these volumes 

 are brief and tentative, as would naturally be 

 expected. Full of thrilling interest and of im- 

 portance are the accounts of the journeys 

 made for the physiographic and geological ex- 

 plorations of the coast regions of northeastern 

 South Victoria Land. The enforced winter- 

 ing of Campbell's party, equipped for summer 

 travel only, was on the verge of disaster sev- 

 eral times. Wintering in a hut carved out of 

 a snow-covered glacier, they lived for nine 

 months from hand to mouth on penguins and 



seals. Other scientists had experiences but 

 little less dangerous and trying. Indeed it 

 may be said that no previous polar expedition 

 has ever surpassed that of Scott in the devo- 

 tion of its staff to scientific investigations en- 

 tailing personal, prolonged and perilous ser- 

 vice. 



Brief chapters treat of scientific work, such 

 as that wonderful survival of the condition of 

 the Ice Age — the so-called barrier of Ross; 

 the physiography and glacial geology of South 

 Victoria, supplemented by a geological history 

 of that ice-clad region; fossils connected with 

 coal-beds, and those thought to be suited to 

 settle the controversy as to the nature of the 

 connection of Australia and Antarctica; and 

 as to ice physics. Meteorology, tides, magne- 

 tism, pendulum work, and atmospheric elec- 

 tricity are treated, though incompletely, while 

 the local sea-work is supplemented by a sum- 

 mary of the biological investigations carried 

 on by the Terra Nova in her voyages from 

 1910 to 1913. Volcanic investigations were 

 pursued on Mt. Erebus, and fossil evidences 

 were obtained from the Great Beacon Sand- 

 stone Series. 



No previous volumes of polar narrative have 

 been so fully and appropriately illustrated as 

 this thrilling story of the work of Scott's Last 

 Expedition, largely due to Dr. Wilson and Mr. 

 Pointing. Not only do the illustrations please 

 the artistic sense, but many will also be of 

 permanent value to scientific students. This 

 is especially true of the photographic plates 

 showing glacial conditions, and the many 

 beautiful reproductions of snow and ice forms. 

 Nor can one neglect those of birds and seals, 

 of mountains and clouds, and even of bliz- 

 zards. Among the 278 full-page plates will be 

 found some which will convey ampler and 

 clearer ideas to experts than does the written 

 word. 



The editorial supervision must have been 

 hasty, for there are many slips and the text is 

 overburdened — detracting from the dignity of 

 the narrative. The main map is most unsatis- 

 factory. Oates Land does not appear thereon. 

 It is an offence to Americans that not only is 

 Wilkes Land omitted from the key map, but it 



