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somewhat limited. Other limitations, noted by three-hourly observations from 49 selected the editor himself, include lack of hydro- coastal stations. The results are presented in meteorological data and lack of short-term 3-color maps; graphs, in black and white; and energy balance data. Beginnings in these tables depending on the type of information to directions may be made in future volumes. In be conveyed. Together, the variables, their the meantime, the volume and its predecessors descriptors and presentation offer as complete are the best (by virtue of being the only) a climatological profile forthe coastal and compilations available, and they do contain a marine areas of the Gulf of as possible great deal of information. A peripheral value of within the limitation of the database. the book is its bibliography and lists of Because of its early publication in relation to contributing authors and agencies, from which resource exploration and exploitation in the original (and additional ?) data can be Alaskan region, it is reasonable to believe that obtained. the stated objective of the Atlas to provide the As a bonus the third volume contains a type of information “required for the assess- collection of 12 assorted glacier maps and ment of potential impact byoil and gas orthophotographs, including 4 Canadian pro- exploration and development and monitoring ducts. The collection is apparently designed to programs that will permit resource develop- show the state of the art of glacier mapping. Of ment and ensure environmental protection”, particular interest is a series of maps depicting will be realised. TheAtlas is very well thickness changes of selected glaciers in the produced, the tables are crisp, and the legends Bavarian Alps. are very clear. Where the authors believe that an introduction to concepts or tables is Gerald Osborn, Dept. of Geology, University necessary, they have passed it on in the form of Calgary, Calgiuy, Alberta T2N 1N4 of brief notes and in a style that should make them understandable even to the uninformed. The authors must be complemented on their CLIMATIC ATLAS OFTHE CONTINEN- very thorough work. It is hoped that the other TALSHELF WATERS AND COASTAL volumes will achieve the same high standard REGIONS OF ALASKA: VOLUME I - set by Volume I. I highly recommend it to GULF OF ALASKA BY WILLIAMA. BROWER anyone involved in any type of work in Alaska JR., HAROLDW. SEARBY,JAMES L. WISE, and to every climatologist or meteorologist HENRYF. D~AZAND ANTONS. PRECHTEL: US. with an interest in the Arctic. At $5.00 a copy, Depattment of Interior’s Bureau of Land Manage- it is tmly a bargain. For the U.S. Department ment and Alaska Outer Continental Shelf Environ- of the Interior, which funded the project, the mental Assessment Program, 1977. I1 in x I1 in, result must be very satisfying. Their money 439 pp.,$5.00. was well spent. Climatic Atlas of the Gulf of Alaska is the first Lawrence C. Nkemdirim of a three-part series on the climate of the Department of Geography, The University of coastal region of Alaska. The other volumes, Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4. still in preparation, are the Bering Sea (Volume 11) and Chukchi and Beaufort Sea (Volume 110. There is some overlap in the content of ESKIMOS OF NORTHWEST ALASKA IN the volumes, a device which hopefully should THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY, ensure continuity. BASEDONTHE BEECHEY AND The Atlas, which was jointly produced by BELCHERCOLLECTIONS ANDRE- Arctic Environmental Information and Data CORDS COMPILED DURING THE VOY- Centre of the University of Alaska and the AGE OF H.M.S. BLOSSOM TO NOR- National Climatic Centre,presents a vast THWEST ALASKA IN 1826 AND 1827. BY amount of information onatmosphere and JOHNR. BOCKSTWE. surface marine parameters that will be useful in EDITED BYT. K. PENNIMAN. Pin Rivers Museum, the assessment of risks involved in resource 1977 (Monograph Series, Universiv of Oxford, exploitation in the coastal waters of Alaska. Pin Rivers Museum, No. 1). 139 pages, iNus., Elementscovered in the Atlas include maps. No price indicated. temperature, wind, precipitation, pressure, When CommanderFrederick William fog, cloud cover, etc. Also included are icing, Beechey sailed H.M.S. Blossom to Alaska via hypothermia, andstorm surges. Statistical Cape Horn in 1825-6 he carried orders to meet descriptors used in the Atlas include maxima, there with the exploratory parties of Captain minima, means, standard deviations, extremes, and . persistence, probabilities, and return periods. Neither Parry nor Franklin, both in search of a The analyses are based on over a half million , travelled far enough west surface marine observations and two million to make their proposed rendezvous with 508 REVIEWS

Beechey in Kotzebue Sound.However an exemplary job in producing what could well Beechey’s expedition was not a failure, for he be used as a model for catalogues of this type. spent two fruitful summers in Alaskan waters Hisclear descriptions are supplemented by carrying out survey work, gathering natural excellent photographs, with close-up shots of history specimens, and amassing a substantial important features, and a few pen-and-ink collection of ethnographic material from the drawings showing details of construction. The Alaskan Eskimos. Much of Beechey’s eth- catalogue is enhanced with introductory nographic collection, together with that of chapters placing the collections in historical his assistant surveyor,Lieutenant Edward perspective and with ethnographic observa- Belcher, is now housed in the Pitt Rivers tions from a variety of sources, including field Museum at the University of Oxford, and it is sketches and excerpts from the journals kept a pleasure to see a catalogue of this early body by Beechey, Belcher and other crew members of Eskimo material culture finally published by during the voyage of H.M.S. Blossom. that venerable institution. J. Garth Taylor This catalogue of 119 extant items from the Beechey and Belcher collections, carefully REFERENCES prepared by John R. Bockstoce, gives us a 1. MLTRDOCH, J. 1892. Ethnological Results of the glimpse of Alaskan Eskimo material culture at Expedition. Washington, D.C.: a very early period in their contact history. U.S. Government Printing office (Ninth The voyage of the Blossom was completed Annual Report of the U.S. Bureau of prior to the intensive contact conditions that Ethnology, 1887-8). followed the expansion of Russian-American 2. NELSON, E. W. 1899. The Eskimo about Bering trading posts in the 1830’s and the invasion of Strait. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Arctic whaling ships after 1848. The artefactsin Printing Office (Eighteenth Annual Report the catalogue were therefore manufactured of the U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology, during a much earlier stage of acculturation 18%-7). than those represented in previously published 3. VAN STONE, J. w. 1976. The Bruce Collection collections from northwestern Alaska (Mur- of Eskimo Material Culture from Port doch, 1892; Nelson, 1899, Vanstone, 1976), Clarence, Alaska. Chicago: Field Museum which date from the final decades of the of Natural History (Fieldiana: Anthropol- nineteenth century. ogy vol. 67). It is always disturbing to see how old collections with such tremendous potential for ethnographic research can have their scientific THE BIOGEOCHEMISTRY OF BLUE, value so sadly diminished by poor documenta- SNOW, AND ROSS’ GEESE. BY HAROLDC. tion. Although the author of the catalogue HANSONAND ROBERTL. JONES.Carbondale, appears to have made a thorough search for Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press (Special records covering the acquisition of specimens publication - Illinois Natural History Survey; no. by Beechey and Belcher, he appears to have l.), 1976. 10 x 7 inches,281 pages,illustrated. met with little success. This is particularly $I5.00. serious in thecase of the Belcher material, In 1965 Hanson and Jones set out to show which was not sold by the collector until some that chemical patterns in primary wing feathers time near his death in 1877 and which contains could be used to determine the geographic many pieces that are shown by Bockstoce to origins of geese which nest in the Arctic. be wrongly labelled. Even the Beechey During the summer geese are temporarily material, which tends to be more accurate in grounded when they moult their primary this respect,is often merely labelled “Es- feathers. As their new feathersgrow, adults quimaux” and cannot be pinpointed to specific and their flightless young feed within an area locations within the vast temtory between St. restricted to the breeding grounds. On the Lawrence Island and Point Barrow. Such poor premise that characteristic mineral patterns in records of provenance make it difficult if not the soils should be transmitted through the impossible to analyse the material from the nutrient chain to appear in the newly grown standpoint of either cultural homogeneity or feathers,Hanson and Jones studied the regional differentiation, and perhaps this is one composition of feather samples collected from of the main reasons that the author has avoided the major species of North American geese. In any general conclusions based on the collec- this book they present their results for lesser tion as a whole. snow geese (Ansercaerulescens caerulescens - In describing the artefacts, which fall mainly including both white and blue colour phases), in the general categories of “Hunting and greater snow geese (Ansercaerulescens atlan- Fishing Equipment” and “Tools and Man- tica), and Ross’ geese (Anser rossii). They ufacturing Implements”, Bockstoce has done discuss and explain the many facets of the