GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 



Through the First Antarctic Night. 

 By Frederick A. Cook, M. D. Illus- 

 trated. New York : Doubleday & 

 McClure Co. 



Dr. Cook has the unique distinction 

 of having explored the two ends of the 

 earth. He has worked with the Peary 

 expeditions in the far north, and was 

 an important member of the first party 

 of men ever to winter within the Ant- 

 arctic Circle. The volume which he 



Dr. Frederick A. Cook 



has recently published, giving the re- 

 sults of the two years' work of the party 

 on the Belgica, forms a notable work. 

 As the surgeon and anthropologist of 

 the expedition, Dr. Cook was naturally 

 most interested in the problems of ani- 

 mal life. There is an interesting chapter 



on the Fuegian ' ' giants, ' ' who average 

 at least six feet in stature; on the great 

 sheep farms of southern Patagonia, 

 where the climate is so mild and pas- 

 turage so easy that one shepherd can 

 guard 2,000 sheep; on the geographical 

 discoveries by the expedition, including 

 Belgica Strait and the tracing of a con- 

 siderable coastline, and on the long 

 South Polar night. The effects of the 

 winter darkness, Dr. Cook believes, are 

 much more severe in the south than at 

 the opposite end of the world. The 

 unceasing storms are harsher and more 

 depressing. Dr. Cook tried the experi- 

 ment of making his men stand daily for 

 an hour half naked before the fire, and 

 found that the stimulating effect of the 

 sun was thus partly obtained. In an 

 appendix to the volume are included the 

 scientific results obtained by the various 

 members of the expedition. Dr. Cook 

 has given the public an interesting and 

 instructive volume, handsomely illus- 

 trated hy photographs taken by himself. 

 To gain an idea of what the three ex- 

 peditions sent out by England, Ger- 

 many, and Sweden, and now in the far 

 south, are experiencing and aiming 

 for, one could not do better than read 

 " Through the First Antarctic Night." 



Descriptive Geography from Original 

 Sources. North America. Illustra- 

 ted. Edited by F. D. and A. J. Her- 

 bertson. London : A. & C. Black. 

 1901. $0.75. 



The selections in this volume have 

 been made with much care and wisdom 

 and the editors are to be congratulated 

 on their success in giving interesting 

 and accurate original descriptions of 

 many geographic features. A work of 

 this nature, however, being a compila- 

 tion of extracts from many authors, 

 necessarily lacks unity and S3'mmetry. 

 Each description appears more or less 



