1 882.] Recent Literature. 665 



and Stuxberg) he took with him had already made successful 

 explorations in Spitsbergen. Nordenskiold's style is clear and 

 graphic, the plan of the book is comprehensive and well carried 

 out, though the translator's work has not always been successful, 

 as Swedish idioms appear here and there to mar the fluency of 

 the narrative. 



Confining ourselves to the scientific results, the ethnological 

 matter is of special interest. Of the polar races whose acquaint- 

 ance our author has made, he regards the reindeer Lapps as 

 standing the highest, and next to them come the Eskimo of Dan- 



of Northwestern America, "on whose originally rough life, con- 

 tact with the American whale-fishers appears to have had a very 

 , beneficial influence." Next come the Chukchis, who have had 

 but limited intercourse with Europeans, but whose honesty and 

 hospitality and general good behavior has been tested, not only 

 by Nordenskiold, but recently in a very satisfactory way by the 

 Rodgers party. Last of all come the Samoyeds, who inhabit the 

 region from Waygats island eastward to the Gulf of Obi. Their 

 contact with the Russians has had "a distinctly deteriorating 



A chapter is devoted to the Samoyeds and another to the 

 Chukchis, among whom the Vc^a party wintered. 



More is said of the animal life than "usual in such works, and 

 this will prove one of the most attractive features of the book to 

 our readers. To the animal world, especially the birds and mam- 

 mals of Novaya Zemblya. a special chapter is devoted, while the 

 marine zoology of the Kara sea is fully discussed, as dredging 

 was carried on at all possible points. 



The New Siberian islands, well known among Russian ivory 

 collectors for their extraordinary richness in tusks and portions 

 of skeletons of the mammoth, were visited. The history of the 

 discovery of the mammoth is set forth by Nordenskiold, who 

 infers from the fact that at least a hundred pairs of tusks come 

 annually into the market, " that during the years that have 

 elapsed since the conquest of Siberia, useful tusks from more 

 than 20,000 animals have been collected." The first frozen car- 

 Yenisei, in 1692, by ides, "a KuV.ian ambassador, <m a journey 

 through Siberia to China; while the remains of the mammoth 

 are to be found all over Siberia. Nordenskiold says that the 



are the remains of the mammoth, especially at places where 

 there have been great landslips at the river banks when the ice 

 breaks up in spring. Nowhere, however, are they found in such 



'tin 



; New Siberian islands. 



. Here Hedenstmm, in 





st, saw ten tusks stick 



ing out of the ground, 



;, i; -' 



sandbank on the west : 



side of Liachoff s island, 



