OCTOBKE 12, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



563 



to come. This volume is printed in Christiania 

 and issued at the cost of the Nansen fund for 

 the advancement of science. Large and thick 

 as the volume is, the excellent paper used 

 makes it light enough to handle with ease, 

 while the typography and illustration are first 

 class. 



The work opens with an introduction by the 

 editor in which the services of those who made 

 the expedition possible are given due appreci- 

 ation and grateful acknowledgment made of 

 the enthusiastic devotion of the members of 

 the party to their often multifarious labors. 

 The absence of a detailed chart of the move- 

 ments of the expedition is explained by the 

 fact that the computation of the astronomical 

 data is not yet fully completed and it was un- 

 desirable to delay the publication of memoirs 

 ready for the press. The chart therefore will 

 appear in the second volume. The various 

 memoirs will be printed as soon as ready, each 

 separately paginated but carrying a serial num- 

 ber by which it may easily be referred to. 



Five memoirs appear in the present volume. 

 The first, by Colin Archer, gives a full descrip- 

 tion of the construction of the Fram with 

 diagrams. This will be of permanent value to 

 those contemplating future exploration of the 

 icy regions. The soundness of the theories 

 upon which the vessel's construction was 

 based is sufficiently proved by the fact that, 

 after all her battles with the ice and other ex- 

 periences, a careful survey showed that with 

 the exception of the bending of one of the 

 metallic fenders of the rudder, she had sus- 

 tained no injury whatever. 



While Nansen was enjoying the hospitality 

 of Jackson at Cape Flora, he obtained a col- 

 lection of invertebrate fossils from a stratum 

 of clay below the basalt of the cape. This 

 collection is very fully discussed by Dr. J. F. 

 Pompeckj who finds the fauna to be of upper 

 Jurassic age. A few plant remains were ob- 

 tained from deposits occurring in depressions 

 on the upper surface of the basalts. These are 

 reported on by Nathorst who finds them to be 

 probably of the uppermost Jurassic epoch. 

 From these facts the basalts would appear to 

 be also Mesozoic, though hitherto they had 

 been supposed to be Tertiary. Eobert Collett 



and Nansen discuss the birds obtained by the 

 expedition. Excluding those belonging to the 

 fauna of the coast of Siberia, the bird life of 

 the Polar Sea appears in this region to comprise 

 but one land form, the snowbird (Plectrophenax 

 nivalis), the rest being seafowl, gulls, auks, 

 etc., of which thirty species were obtained. 

 The rarest and most interesting of these is the 

 rosy gull (Bhodostethia rosea). The ivory gull, 

 the fulmar and the kittiwake were the most 

 abundant. The food of the seafowl proved to 

 be chiefly Crustacea and small fish, obtained 

 from cracks and water leads which occur in al- 

 most all the floes from time to time. 



The last and most voluminous article is by 

 Professor G. O. Sars, who describes the Crus- 

 tacea and illustrates them by a magnificent 

 series of autotj'pe plates which will call forth 

 the admiration and gratitude of all carcin- 

 ologists. Most of the Crustacea are copepods, 

 minute shrimps which serve as the chief food 

 of the whale and seafowl. The westerly drift 

 from the Siberian coast brings with it quan- 

 tities of minute algae and diatoms upon which 

 the crustaceans subsist. They belong to the 

 superficial stratum moved by the prevalent 

 winds. Professor Sars, however, believes that 

 the fauna of the deeper waters is derived 

 from the Atlantic inflow below the superficial 

 stratum. Among them it was a surprise to 

 find, associated with strictly polar forms, 

 several heretofore known only from the tropics, 

 the Mediterranean and even the Caspian Sea. 

 Very few marine animals except Crustacea were 

 found in the Polar basin. A tiny tomcod 

 (Gadus saida) was the only fish observed in the 

 high north. 



The second volume will probably contain 

 the astronomical, magnetic and pendulum ob- 

 servations, with charts and diagrams, dis- 

 cussed by Geelmuyden, Steen and Schiotz and 

 may be expected to appear very soon. 



W. H. Dall. 



Biological Lectures from the Marine Biological 



Laboratory of Woods Eoll. 1899. Boston, 



Ginn & Co. 1900. Pp. 282. 



This annual, whose appearance is always 



awaited with interest, has enlarged its scope so 



that it no longer, as formerly, includes only lee- 



