THE KING'S MIRROR 21 



man who had been active in the secular world and was 

 anxious to get at real facts. 



Among the chapters devoted to scientific lore the 

 author has introduced several which are ostensibly in- 

 tended to serve the purpose of entertainment; the author 

 seems to fear that the interest of his readers is likely 

 to flag, if the dry recital of physical facts is continued 

 unbroken. It is in these chapters, which profess to deal 

 with the marvels of Norway, Ireland, Iceland, Green- 

 land, and the Arctic seas, that he introduces his geo- 

 graphical data. In the description of Greenland are 

 included such important and practical subjects as the 

 general character of the land, the great ice fields, the 

 products of the country, wild animals, and a few facts 

 from the economic life of the people. In the chapters on 

 Iceland the author limits himself to certain physical 

 features, such as glaciers, geysers, mineral springs, vol- 

 canoes, and earthquakes. He also gives a " description 

 of the animal world of the northern seas to which there 

 is no parallel in the earlier literature of the world." * He 

 enumerates twenty-one different species of whales f and 

 describes several of them with some fulness. He men- 

 tions and describes six varieties of seals J and also gives 

 a description of the walrus. The marvelous element is 

 represented by detailed accounts of the " sea-hedges " 

 (probably sea quakes) on the coasts of Greenland, the 



* Nansen, In Northern Mists, II, 243. 



t Ibid. " If we make allowance for three of them being probably sharks and 

 for two being perhaps alternative names for the same whale, the total corre- 

 sponds to the number of species that are known in northern waters." 

 % Ibid. This " corresponds to the number of species living on the coasts of 

 Norway and Greenland." 



