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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 866 



agascar, Java on the south. Therefore it 

 includes the Amazon, Nile and Niger, Zam- 

 besi and the rivers of India. The third vol- 

 ume treats of the north and south temperate 

 zones and finally, also, the Arctic and Ant- 

 arctic regions. The latter are small in area 

 but exceedingly interesting in their mysteries. 

 The temperate zones are those on which we 

 love to dwell because there the events of the 

 modern world have taken place. Of course 

 the six hundred pages of Hann's third volume, 

 devoted to the temperate zones, and the fol- 

 lowing one hundred, devoted to the Arctic and 

 Antarctic regions, are full of interest and 

 novelty. Although we think our annual means 

 of temperature are moderate and temperate 

 as compared with those of the polar regions 

 and the tropic zones, yet the monthly means 

 and the annual ranges show the greatest con- 

 trasts. Thus we may have — 40° C. and 

 • — 50° C. as the normal for an average Jan- 

 uary in northeastern Asia, while the same 

 Januaries in southern Asia, in Japan and 

 China, Afghanistan, Persia, may be from zero 

 up to + 10°. By analogy we find the Jan- 

 uary temperatures in North America show 

 similar contrasts, such as — 14° C. at Bis- 

 marck, N. Dak., and + 12° C. at New Or- 

 leans, or 10° C. at San Francisco and — 5.6° C. 

 at Portland, Me. Such contrasts of average 

 temperature give zest to life in the temperate 

 zones. 



Cleveland Abbe 



Resultats du voyage du 8. Y. Belgica en 1897, 

 1898, 1899, sous le commandement de A. 

 de Gerlache de Gomery: Oceanographie, les 

 glaces, glace de mer, et banquises par 

 Henryk Aectowski; Schizopoda and Cum- 

 acea by H. J. Hansen, 1908; Diatomees 

 par H. VAN Heurck ; Petrographische unter- 

 suchung dor Gesteinsproben von A. Peli- 

 kan; and Quelques Plantes fossiles des 

 terres Magellaniques par A Gilkinet. 

 1909. 



Still another batch of publications on the 

 results of the Belgica expedition to the Ant- 

 arctic is at hand, and more to come, accord- 

 ing to the schedule, though one can not help 



wondering if volume X., by Dr. P. A. Cook, 

 will eventually be among them, as originally 

 announced. In the present instance the work 

 is by scientists of quite another stamp. 



In his discussion of the different forms 

 under which ice appears in those regions Are- 

 towski attempts to systematize and sum up 

 the data given much more fully in his journal 

 of the voyage; and also to consider the ques- 

 tion of the limits of the ice pack, historically 

 and from the Belgica observations. The 

 movements and behavior of the pack and floe 

 ice are fully explained. The character of the 

 surface and how it is affected by wind and 

 snowstorms are admirably shown by excellent 

 half-tone reproductions of photographs. 



Hansen devotes 20 pages and three excel- 

 lent plates to the study of the crustacean 

 Euphausia, Cyclaspis and related forms of 

 marine habitat, so characteristic of the austral 

 seas. 



Van Heurck treats of the diatoms obtained 

 in samples of the bottom obtained in sounding 

 and in the residue from melted sea ice ob- 

 tained at various places. The diatoms of 

 the plankton are reserved for further study. 

 An appendix on the diatoms of Kerguelen and 

 a complete list of polar diatoms, Arctic and 

 Antarctic, complete the memoir which is 

 illustrated by thirteen phototype plates whose 

 execution leaves nothing to be desired. 



The photography of the rock specimens 

 brought home by the expedition is the subject 

 of Pelikan's memoir. The rocks are crystal- 

 line or igneous, mostly granite, diorites, por- 

 phyrites, basalts and gangue minerals. Two 

 plates of magnified microscopic sections ac- 

 company the text. 



Gilkinet devotes a few pages to a few fossil 

 plants, mostly beeches and Myrtiphyllum, not 

 new, but which present a certain interest 

 because they come from a station near Punta 

 Arenas, not far from a locality visited by the 

 Swedish expedition, and comprise species not 

 hitherto known from that locality, but only 

 from the Sierra de los Baguales at a consid- 

 erable distance from the Belgica locality. 

 Also the maps showing geological distribution 

 have not indicated hitherto tertiary beds at 



