BOOK REVIEWS ‘3’ account of theexploration of Hudson of Greenland from Hans Egede in 172I Bay and BaffinBay. Two chaptersare toGin0 Watkins andCourtauld. The used to give anexcellent summary of last four chapters summarize the search Russian expansion into Siberia, of Ber- for the Northeast and Northwest Pass- ing’s voyages, the story of Semen Dezh- ages; exploration of JonesSound and nev andothers, ending withWrangel’s Beaufort Sea; Peary’s achievement of sledge journey. the Pole, and Flying in the Arctic. The Britishexploration in thenineteenth penultimate chapter includes a statement centuryoccupies three chapters, with headed “The truth about Cook” which much of the space givento Franklin’s outlinesthe views of theauthor as to voyages andthe Franklin Search. In a whereDr. Cook really was when he discussion of “The Route to the North”, claimed to be making his remarkable the stages by which the open polar sea journey to the North Pole. was reachedthrough Kane Basin and To the Arctic! is well illustrated with RobesonChannel are described with a photographsand maps. Appendicesin- fittingtribute to themagnificent work clude a list of the Franklin search parties of theNares Expedition of 1875-76. and a chronology of northernexplora- Other chapters deal with the exploration tion. T.Ll. ROSTER OF ARCTIC SPECIALISTS The Arctic Institute of North America is compiling a roster of persons with Arctic experience. It is to include scientists, traders, missionaries,administrators, explorers and others with field experiencein any part of theArctic. The Directors of the Project would be glad to receive the names of any persons who shouldbe added to the roster. Information may be addressed tothe Director, Arctic Institute Roster, 1530 P StreetNorth- west, Washington, D.C. NORTHERNRESEARCH REPORTS Archaeology Museum of Denmark to provide a Dan- In NovemberIn 1947 theNational ish archaeologistfor the excavation of Museum of Canada set about organizing the sites in Slidre Fiord, which lies on aninternational archaeological expedi- an overland route to North Greenland. tion toexcavate some ancientEskimo Furthermoreit planned that eitherits ruins near the two weather stations that Director, Dr. F. J. Alcock, or the Chief hadbeen erected that summer in the of its Division of Anthropology, Dr. D. Canadian ArcticArchipelago, one at Jenness, would visit the two sites while Resolute Bay onCornwallis Island, the they were being excavated, and that all other in Slidre Fiord, Eureka Sound, on specimens recoveredwould ultimately thewest coast of EllesmereIsland. It be dividedbetween the three National invitedDr. Henry B. Collins, of the museums. United States National Museum in Unfortunatelythe National Museum Washington,to excavate the sites in of Canada was not able to arrange for Resolute Bay; and it asked the National the transportation of an archaeologist to I 32 ARCTIC voL. I, NO. L SlidreFiord, and had to give upthat head, small narrow nose, epicanthic fold, part of its program.About the middle and light skin. The other was more In- of July,however, it did succeed in ar- dian-like, resembling thetype which ranging for Dr. Collins and an assistant prevails inother parts of theCentral from Canada to be flown in to Resolute Arctic, the distinguishing features being b Bay; and when the airfield there proved a wide and high face,high and wide to be temporarily inoperative, in having forehead, a relativelylarge and convex themlanded at theFrobisher Bay air- nose, largemouth, anddark skin. port, Baffin Island, where theyhappily on Dr.Henry B. Collins was assisted in discovered otherruins that promised a profitable field-season. thework by Mr. Colin L. Thacker of the Division of Biology, National Excavations werecarried out during Museum of Canada. July and August at a prehistoric Eskimo site near themouth of Sylvia Grinnell Lake Mistassini, Quebec River at the upper end of Frobisher Bay. A second archaeological reconnaissance The excavations were of significance in was made to the region of lakes Mistas- revealing evidence of Dorset-Thule re- sini and Albanel, Quebec between June lationships in a regionpreviously un- 14 andSeptember 25 byEdward S. known archaeologically. The site con- Rogers and Murray H. Rogers. Financial sisted of four semi-subterranean houses aid was received fromthe Robert S. built of stones, whale bones and turf. Peabody Foundation for Archaeology, They were oval to rectangular in shape, with a narrow sunken entrance passage. Andover, Mass., and the Viking Fund of The houses were almostcompletely New York. The canoe route began at covered with a dense growth ofmoss, Oskelaneo River, Que. and reached Lake willows, grass and other vegetation. Mistassini by way oflakes Lynxeye, Only Thule material was found inside Nemenjish,Obatogamau, Chibougamau the houses, while the adjacent middens and Waconichi. From Mistassini the trip contained both Thuleand Dorset objects, continued northward to Lake Albanel thelatter for the most part at deeper and thence for twenty-five miles up the levels. Thiswould indicate that Thule Temiscamie River to Lake Tournemine. culture people werethe last occupants There a few excavations were made to of the site but that they had been pre- determine thevertical distribution of ceded by Dorset Eskimos who presum- artifactson sites locatedduring 1947. ably had built the houses. There was no The east coast of Lake Albanel was next trace of metal. Stone implements, which surveyed as far as the“Long Portage” were abundant, were preponderately which was then taken to reach Lake Dorsetin type, consisting of asymmet- Mistassini. Leaving LakeObatogamau rical knife blades, end and side scrapers, theparty crossed thedivide separating harpoon and arrow blades of chipped the St. Lawrence drainage basin from chert.Very few rubbed slate blades that of Hudson Bay, to reach Lake were found.Animal bones fromthe Ducharme andcontinue upthe Scatsi houses andmiddens showed thatthe River to Lake Potrincourte and so back people had subsisted principally on seal to Gouin Reservoirand the Hudson’s and caribou. Whale,walrus, beluga, Bay Company post at Oskelaneo River. birdsand fish, and probably also dogs, Over ’ eighthundred artifacts were were of secondary importance as sources collected. The majority of the knives, of food. spears, scrapers and axes were percussion Measurements and physiological ob- chipped from quartz, while a few were servations were also made on a series of made from flint. A number of prehistoric living Eskimos-40 males and 40 females, sites were located along the seven hun- all adults. These Frobisher Eskimos were dred miles of route traversed northward found to consist of two principal types. fromGouin Reservoir. Geographical The first-the more typical Eskimo-had noteswere compiled throughoutthe a wide but relatively low face, low fore- journey. NORTHERN RESEARCHREPORTS '33 Aerobiology" was limited mainly to the Gasp6 penin- Prof.Nicholas Polunin, MacDonald sula and other arctic or subarctic habi- Professor of Botany, McGill University, tats which are found in the Gulf of St. Montreal,returned late in September Lawrenceregion. 1948 froman extensive series of flights The need tostudy the hypothesis in northward from Alaska. His mainpur- the light of new facts became apparent. pose was to gather spore specimens in a Hencesurveys in the interior of Anti- special device designed incollaboration costi island, which, was supposed to have with scientists of the United States gov- escaped glaciation, were madein 1940 ernment.Prof. Polunin returned with and 1942. The great unknown, however, about 80 glass plates which had been being the interior of the Ungava penin- exposed at variousheights on flights sula, and northern Quebec in general, I which included one over the north. geo- decidedto give my attentionto this graphical pole. Hereported that the problem. To fulfill the plan, three differ- workdone so far, incooperation with ent areas werestudied in succession I) Dr. S. M. Padyand Dr. C. D.Kelly from 1944 tothe spring of 1947, the also of McGill University, had indicated subarcticforests in the limestone area apreviously unsuspected abundance of of Lake Mistassini; 2) in the summer of bacteria, mould, yeast, pollen and other 1947, a survey of George Riverl,-which, living botanical particles in the air over flowing from theheight of theland, thearctic regions.Stem and leaf rusts north of Lake Michikamau on the Que- of wheat and foot-rot of rye and barley bec-Labrador boundary, provides a good were found in 1947 over the arcticislands cross section of the vegetation from the near the north magnetic pole. subarctic forest to the arctic barren land; The apparatus used to collectspore 3) finally, this year a sector of the Un- specimens is fitted into the nose of the gava peninsula north of the timber line, aircraft so that any organisms in the air betweenHudson Bay andUngava Bay coming in contact with it become fixed via the Kogaluk and Payne rivers2. to a plate treated with a special silicone Exceptfor a traverse byRobert J. smear which remains sticky even at tem- Flaherty3, along the Payne and Povung- peratures as low as -90' F. On the most nitukrivers in 1912, noother traverse recent flight thetemperature at 25,000 of theUngava peninsula north of the feet above the north pole was found to timberline had apparently been made. be -48" F. whilenot long before, near Furthermore, on this summer's trip, only sea level it hadbeen slightly below thelowest part of thePayne River freezing point. The apparatus used dur-