January 31, 1896.] 



SGIENGE. 



171 



the glimpses of cold nature which we obtain 

 here and there scattered through the pages, 

 and the inner vista into the natural life of those 

 peculiar children of the north, the Samoyads. 

 Mr. Jackson lived with them in cleanliness and 

 dirt, in health and distemper, and behind pony ' 

 and reindeer, and is, therefore, in a position to 

 give a picture that is neither under-colored nor 

 over-colored. Apart, however, from a general 

 broad discription of both people and country 

 there is little in the book to tax the mind of 

 the inquiring scholar, and least that of the 

 scientist. Zoological, botanical and geological 

 data are exceedingly meagre, and, owing largely 

 to the loss of the thermometer record-book for 

 the months of December and January, there is 

 little to add to meteorology. The lowest read- 

 ing of the thermometer was found on December 

 5th, — 36. °5 F. Mr. Arthur Montefiore, the 

 editor of Mr. Jackson's journals, contributes a 

 chapter on the Samoyad language, a series of 

 translations on Samoyad folk-tales from Gas- 

 trin's Ethnologisclie Vorlesungen, and an appen- 

 dix on the 'object, method and equipments' 

 of the Jackson- Harmsworth Polar Expedition. 

 The tone of the book, both as it is found in 

 the main text and in the contributions of the 

 editor, leads to a lingering suspicion that it is 

 conceived too much in a spirit of enthusiasm to 

 permit it everywhere to be followed as a safe 

 guide. Thus, in the prefatory remarks the 

 reader is led to believe that the journey was 

 undertaken in the region of ' the Pole of Ex- 

 treme Cold,' but between the minimum thermo- 

 metric registry that has been above noted 

 (-36°. 5 F.) and the cold of Yakutsk and Verksho- 

 jansk, minus 75°-82° F. (or, according to report 

 two years ago, -92°), there is a vast difference — 

 the difference, in fact, between Minnesota and 

 what is experienced by almost every Arctic ex- 

 pedition wintering in the far north. We are 

 informed on page 160 that a journey of 700 

 versts (about 470 miles) was accomplished iu 

 seven and a-half days, on two sledges, ' one 

 horse to each sledge,' and that at the end of the 

 journey the horses ' trotted into Pinega appar- 

 ently as fresh as paint. ' To travel sixty miles 

 a day for seven days in succession is certainly 

 no ordinary feat for horses even of the Russian 

 type, and many a carrier would be welcomed 



for this undertaking into the camps of the Rus- 

 sian or German military posts ; hut what dig- 

 nity or honor would be conferred upon a Zirian 

 who drove three reindeer, within a period of 

 twenty-four hours, over a distance of 1200 

 versts (800 miles)! It is hardly to be wondered, 

 at that the team died on the following day (p. 

 74). 



Almost the only fact of physiographic im- 

 portance which is noted is the occvirrence of 

 raised beaches near the mouth of the Piatso- 

 woryaha River, where the amphitheatre of an 

 old bay extends backward a distance of some 

 nine miles from the present seashore. "Step 

 above step there ranged the old seabeaches, 

 following the lines of the higher land immedi- 

 ately behind them, and girding with a terraced 

 rampart the level basin of salt marsh into which 

 the waves once rolled. * * * * * These old 

 seabeaches, I may add, continued for many 

 miles westward — notably that which is now six 

 miles from the sea, and lies just to the east of 

 the Pechora River — and most certainly would 

 repay the attention of a geologist if he could 

 visit them in summer" (p. 129). 



Mr. Jackson is now working in an important 

 field of exploration, and scientists, no less than 

 geographers, cannot but wish him success in an 

 undertaking which requires for its accomplish- 

 ment a more than ordinary amount of courage 

 and determination, and a knowledge of the kind 

 which must be forced upon every traveler who 

 attempts the long passage of the Great Frozen 

 Laud. Angelo Hbilpein. 



Academy of Natueal Sciences, 



Philadelphia, January 11, 1896. 



A Complete Geography. By Alex. E. Feye. 



Ginn & Co., Boston, Mass. 1895. 



Since the publication, last year, of Frye's 

 Primary Geography, the appearance of a larger 

 book for grammar school use, promised by the 

 same author, has been awaited with much in- 

 terest. This book is now at hand. Its plan, 

 like that of the Primary Geography, departs 

 widely from the beaten track followed by most 

 writers of school geographies. This has gener- 

 ally consisted of an introductory chapter on the 

 earth's mathematical feaj;ures, followed by a 

 condensed review of physical geography, after 



