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College and Research Libraries Recent Publications BOOK REVIEWS vant place names. A cursory examination of his check-list and index evokes such Northwestern Approaches: the First Cen­ memorable names as Vitus Bering of Ber­ tury of Books. By R. D. Hilton Smith. ing Sea, Robert Gray of Gray's Harbor, Victoria, B.C.: The Adelphi Book Shop Simon Fraser of Fraser River, and George Vancouver of Vancouver Island, along with Ltd., 1969. 67p. $6.50. Alexander Mackenzie, David .Thompson, This I know. Any book about the Pa­ Otto von Kotzebue, John Jewitt, and Baron cific Northwest is a collector's item. North­ de Lesseps. western Approaches passes muster for oth­ The longest chapter in Northwestern er reasons, too. It is something in the na­ Approaches has to do with British land ture of a bibliography printed and pub­ and sea explorations conducted, it is so lished in British Columbia, and issued in a hard to believe, during the height of the limited edition of 750 copies. The book American Revolution. Mr. Smith's narra­ derives from a series of lectures given to tive contains sufficient historical chronolo­ the students of the University of British gy to place each bibliographic entry in a Columbia School of Librarianship in 1966. proper perspective. Mr. Smith devoted his talks to "books Northwestern Approaches should be as written by the explorers of British Colum­ acceptable to aficionados of Pacific North­ bia and its approaches during the century west Americana as it can be useful to which began with Bering's first voyage and compatriots who wish merely to acquire a ended with Sir George Simpson's second hazy impression of early explorations and journey to the Columbia." This meant no voyages. The narrative is clear and easy inhibition, however, for "British Columbia on the mind. Since Hilton Smith is an ex­ and its approaches" virtually covers the perienced librarian and alert bookman, he Pacific rim. is nicely attuned to British Columbiana. The book contains tidy thumbnail ac· He has enriched his presentation with counts of major explorations conducted twelve judiciously chosen illustrations. Dr. from Russia, Spain, Great Britain, France, Samuel Rothstein originated the library and the United States during the hundred school lectures and contributed a Fore­ years, 1728 to 1828. Mr. Smith's repertory word to them.-Harry C. Bauer, University of books arising from these explorations in­ of Washington. cludes works that any librarian or schooled Junior College Libraries: Development, layman must take cognizance of if he Needs, and Perspectives. By Everett wishes to reside and live long in the Pa­ LeRoy Moore, ed. (ACRL Monograph, cific Northwest. Regionalism is inexorable, No. 30). Chicago: American Library and nobody in the Pacific Northwest can Association, 1969. 104p. (68-56370). afford to be a landlubber. To survive, one must be conversant with Captain Van­ Community Junior College Libraries: couver's ship, the Discovery, and know Development, Needs, and Perspectives that Captain Cook had a Discovery, too, should have been the title of this publica­ as well as a Resolution. Northwestern Ap· tion. This brief volume is a collection of proaches provides a key to these and ap­ nineteen papers submitted at the Confer­ proximately forty other never-to-be-forgot­ ence on Junior College Libraries held at ten ships, including the New Hazard of the University of California, Los Angeles, Stephen Reynolds, the Astrolabe of La June 21-24, 1967. Except for Ralph S. Perouse, the Neva of Urey Lisiansky, and Emerick, Director of the Library at Ste­ the Argonaut of James Colnett. Further­ phens College, who represented the pri­ more, Mr. Smith would never forsake rele- vate junior college library, all the program 544/ .
Recommended publications
  • Steller's Sea
    eptember 1741. Captain-commander Vitus Bering’s ship, St. Peter, was stumbling somewhere among the long desolate string of Aleutian Islands in the far North Pacific. All on board recognized that it was unlikely they’d ever make it home. Scurvy had flattened several of the crew, two men had already died, and Captain Bering himself was terribly ill. The fresh water stored in barrels was mostly foul, and the storm-force winds and seas were constantly in their faces. Sailing aboard St. Peter and sharing the cabin with Captain Bering was a German physician and naturalist Snamed Georg Wilhelm Steller. On his first voyage, Steller was certain they were near to land because he saw floating seaweed and various birds that he knew to be strictly coastal. But no one listened to him, in part because he hadn’t been shy in showing that he thought them all idiots, and also because his idea of exactly where they happened to be was wrong. Bering’s expedition continued, blindly groping westward toward Siberia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. The storms raged on, more men died, then eventually, somehow, they made it to a small protected harbor in the middle of the night. They hoped it was the mainland. Steller and his servant rowed several of the sickest men ashore the next morning. He thought the place was an island because of the shape of the clouds and how the sea otters carelessly swam over to the boat, unafraid of man. Once ashore, Steller noticed a huge animal swimming along the coast, a creature that he had never seen before and was unknown in cold, northern waters.
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  • Early Maritime Russia and the North Pacific Arc Dianne Meredith Russia Has Always Held an Ambiguous Position in World Geography
    Early Maritime Russia and the North Pacific Arc Dianne Meredith Russia has always held an ambiguous position in world geography. Like most other great powers, Russia spread out from a small, original core area of identity. The Russian-Kievan core was located west of the Ural Mountains. Russia’s earlier history (1240-1480) was deeply colored by a Mongol-Tatar invasion in the thirteenth century. By the time Russia cast off Mongol rule, its worldview had developed to reflect two and one-half centuries of Asiatic rather than European dominance, hence the old cliché, scratch a Russian and you find a Tatar. This was the beginning of Russia’s long search of identity as neither European nor Asian, but Eurasian. Russia has a longer Pacific coastline than any other Asian country, yet a Pacific identity has been difficult to assume, in spite of over four hundred years of exploration (Map 1). Map 1. Geographic atlas of the Russian Empire (1745), digital copy by the Russian State Library. Early Pacific Connections Ancient peoples from what is now present-day Russia had circum-Pacific connections via the North Pacific arc between North America and Asia. Today this arc is separated by a mere fifty-six miles at the Bering Strait, but centuries earlier it was part of a broad subcontinent more than one-thousand miles long. Beringia, as it is now termed, was not fully glaciated during the Pleistocene Ice Age; in fact, there was not any area of land within one hundred miles of the Bering Strait itself that was completely glaciated within the last million years, while for much of that time a broad band of ice to the east covered much of present-day Alaska.
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  • The Forgotten Journey Huw Lewis-Jones Revisits a Pioneering, Ill-Fated Expedition to Map the Arctic
    Vitus Bering, leader of the eighteenth-century Great Northern Expedition, died en route and was buried here, in the Commander Islands (pictured in 1980). POLAR EXPLORATION The forgotten journey Huw Lewis-Jones revisits a pioneering, ill-fated expedition to map the Arctic. he Great Northern Expedition was an Yet Bering’s brainchild books: Corey Ford’s Where the Sea Breaks Its immense eighteenth-century enter- was certainly one of Back (Little, Brown, 1966) and Steller’s Island prise that redrew the Arctic map. Led the largest, longest and (Mountaineers, 2006) by Dean Littlepage. Tby Danish captain Vitus Bering, it set out in most costly expedi- Bown’s synthesis of these “tragic and 1733 from St Petersburg, Russia. Over the tions mounted in the ghastly” final months is well written. He also next decade, a dwindling cavalcade crossed eighteenth century. goes to great lengths to detail the arduous thousands of miles of Siberian forest and Its budget, at around early phases, essentially an unending gauntlet swamp and then, in ships built by hand, 1.5 million roubles, of implausible logistics. Everything needed TARASEVICH/SPUTNIK/ALAMY V. struck out towards the unknown shores of was roughly one-sixth for the voyage — from shipbuilding gear North America. Sponsor Peter the Great of the annual income Island of the Blue and supplies to anchors, sails and cannon- had envisioned a grand campaign to elevate of the Russian state. As Foxes: Disaster balls — had to be hauled overland, by sledge, Russia’s standing in the world, with its scien- an example of commit- and Triumph horse and raft.
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  • Historical Timeline for Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
    Historical Timeline Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Much of the refuge has been protected as a national wildlife refuge for over a century, and we recognize that refuge lands are the ancestral homelands of Alaska Native people. Development of sophisticated tools and the abundance of coastal and marine wildlife have made it possible for people to thrive here for thousands of years. So many facets of Alaska’s history happened on the lands and waters of the Alaska Maritime Refuge that the Refuge seems like a time-capsule story of the state and the conservation of island wildlife: • Pre 1800s – The first people come to the islands, the Russian voyages of discovery, the beginnings of the fur trade, first rats and fox introduced to islands, Steller sea cow goes extinct. • 1800s – Whaling, America buys Alaska, growth of the fox fur industry, beginnings of the refuge. • 1900 to 1945 – Wildlife Refuge System is born and more land put in the refuge, wildlife protection increases through treaties and legislation, World War II rolls over the refuge, rats and foxes spread to more islands. The Aleutian Islands WWII National Monument designation recognizes some of these significant events and places. • 1945 to the present – Cold War bases built on refuge, nuclear bombs on Amchitka, refuge expands and protections increase, Aleutian goose brought back from near extinction, marine mammals in trouble. Refuge History - Pre - 1800 A World without People Volcanoes push up from the sea. Ocean levels fluctuate. Animals arrive and adapt to dynamic marine conditions as they find niches along the forming continent’s miles of coastline.
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  • Lands' End to the Arctic
    BOOKS & ARTS COMMENT Greenland’s ice cap, pictured here in a photo by US clothing retailer and research patron Gary Comer, serves as a vast climate-change archive. CLIMATE CHANGE Lands’ End to the Arctic Henry Pollack relishes a climate-science narrative with an intrepid and passionate businessman at its heart. wo narratives make up the fabric of to retrace the path of the east coast of North America, to enter the The Fate of Greenland. The polar- Vitus Bering in his Northwest Passage at its eastern portal in research perspectives of well-known 1728 voyage through Baffin Bay. Sixteen days later, Turmoil G. COMER Tclimate scientists form the main thread, the Bering Strait into emerged into the Beaufort Sea, north of woven through with a posthumous tribute to the Arctic Ocean. Alaska, the first private vessel in modern Gary Comer. Comer, founder of US clothing Comer invited natu- times to traverse the Northwest Passage unas- manufacturer Lands’ End, became a patron ralist Philip Conkling sisted by an icebreaker. Roughly a century of climate science in his later years, in a most and me to join him earlier, it had taken Roald Amundsen three unusual way. on that voyage, which years to make that voyage. A native of Chicago, Illinois, Comer had began, as did Bering’s, In an interview in the Chicago Tribune The Fate of as a young man crewed on sailing vessels in Kamchatka, the Greenland: Magazine shortly after this historic 2001 trav- large and small, developing a passion for massive volcanic pen- Lessons from erse, Comer said: “All along the way we were remote places.
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  • Seabird Harvest in Iceland Aever Petersen, the Icelandic Institute of Natural History
    CAFF Technical Report No. 16 September 2008 SEABIRD HARVEST IN THE ARCTIC CAFFs CIRCUMPOLAR SEABIRD GROUP Acknowledgements CAFF Designated Agencies: • Directorate for Nature Management, Trondheim, Norway • Environment Canada, Ottawa, Canada • Faroese Museum of Natural History, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands (Kingdom of Denmark) • Finnish Ministry of the Environment, Helsinki, Finland • Icelandic Institute of Natural History, Reykjavik, Iceland • Ministry of the Environment and Nature, Greenland Homerule, Greenland (Kingdom of Denmark) • Russian Federation Ministry of Natural Resources, Moscow, Russia • Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Stockholm, Sweden • United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska This publication should be cited as: Merkel, F. and Barry, T. (eds.) 2008. Seabird harvest in the Arctic. CAFF International Secretariat, Circumpolar Seabird Group (CBird), CAFF Technical Report No. 16. Cover photo (F. Merkel): Thick-billed murres, Saunders Island, Qaanaaq, Greenland. For more information please contact: CAFF International Secretariat Borgir, Nordurslod 600 Akureyri, Iceland Phone: +354 462-3350 Fax: +354 462-3390 Email: [email protected] Internet: http://www.caff.is ___ CAFF Designated Area Editing: Flemming Merkel and Tom Barry Design & Layout: Tom Barry Seabird Harvest in the Arctic Prepared by the CIRCUMPOLAR SEABIRD GROUP (CBird) CAFF Technical Report No. 16 September 2008 List of Contributors Aever Petersen John W. Chardine The Icelandic Institute of Natural History Wildlife Research Division Hlemmur 3, P.O. Box 5320 Environment Canada IS-125 Reykjavik, ICELAND P.O. Box 6227 Email: [email protected], Tel: +354 5 900 500 Sackville, NB E4L 4K2 CANADA Bergur Olsen Email: [email protected], Tel: +1-506-364-5046 Faroese Fisheries Laboratory Nóatún 1, P.O.
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  • The Northern Routeing in the Arctic Sea and Russian History
    講演(02) The Northern Routeing in the Arctic Sea and Russian History Leonid M. Mitnik V.I. Il'ichev Pacific Oceanological Institute FEB RAS 690041 Vladivostok, Russia, e-mail: [email protected] “History is a lantern to the future, which shines to us from the past” (V.О. Klyuchevskiy, 1841-1911) “The history of the exploration of the North is full of heroic spirit and tragedy, voyages and expeditions that were accompanied with the geographical discoveries, the history of scientific studies, organization of a system of stationary and non-stationary observations, and creation of the scientific–technical support service for the Northern Sea Route (NSR) is a history of a fierce battle against the incredibly severe conditions of the Arctic”. The motivation to navigate the Northeast Passage was initially economic. In Russia the idea of a possible seaway connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific was first put forward by the diplomat Gerasimov in 1525. However, Russian settlers and traders on the coasts of the White Sea, the Pomors, had been exploring parts of the route as early as the 11th century. By the 17th century they established a continuous sea route from Arkhangelsk as far east as the mouth of Yenisey. This route, known as Mangazeya seaway, after its eastern terminus, the trade depot of Mangazeya, was an early precursor to the Northern Sea Route. Western parts of the passage were simultaneously being explored by Northern European countries, looking for an alternative seaway to China and India. Although these expeditions failed, new coasts and islands were discovered. Most notable is the 1596 expedition led by Dutch navigator Willem Barentz who discovered Spitsbergen and Bear Island and rounded the north of Novaya Zemlya.
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  • The Best of the Arctic
    THE BEST OF THE ARCTIC SVALBARD NORWAY ICELAND GREENLAND & CANADA NEW! FABLED LANDS ABOARD NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ORION I 2019/2020 TM DEAR EXPLORER, There are 8 countries that have territory in the Arctic—defined as land and sea north of 66º 33’N latitude. And between May and September 2019 our two polar vessels, National Geographic Explorer and National Geographic Orion will explore all of the sea-bordering countries. Only Finland and Sweden have landlocked Arctic terrain. Just to give some scale to this vast wilderness: ⊲ Population approx. 1.35 people per square mile in the Arctic ⊲ Population approx. 74,000 people per square mile in Manhattan Using the Manhattan comparison really puts the Arctic into perspective: it’s literally the wildest place on Earth to still have some form of permanent human settlement. What it has in abundance there, however, is non-human life. Plankton-rich seas, great colonies of seabirds, bears—polar bears in some parts and brown bears in others—seven different species of pinnipeds including the great walrus; musk oxen; reindeer in some areas; and whales of many different kinds. There are indigenous people who merit our interest and deserve our admiration, as they conduct their lives in what is, for about half the year, the harshest of possible environments. There are the great mountain ranges and icebergs, some the size of 12 government buildings. And of course, there is the ice—the sea ice which provides hunting grounds for polar bears and pupping grounds for seals. The Arctic is an AWESOME part of our planet, which ideally, every human being should, at some point in their lives, experience.
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  • Chronology of the Key Historical Events on the Eastern Seas of the Russian Arctic (The Laptev Sea, the East Siberian Sea, the Chukchi Sea)
    Chronology of the Key Historical Events on the Eastern Seas of the Russian Arctic (the Laptev Sea, the East Siberian Sea, the Chukchi Sea) Seventeenth century 1629 At the Yenisei Voivodes’ House “The Inventory of the Lena, the Great River” was compiled and it reads that “the Lena River flows into the sea with its mouth.” 1633 The armed forces of Yenisei Cossacks, headed by Postnik, Ivanov, Gubar, and M. Stadukhin, arrived at the lower reaches of the Lena River. The Tobolsk Cossack, Ivan Rebrov, was the first to reach the mouth of Lena, departing from Yakutsk. He discovered the Olenekskiy Zaliv. 1638 The first Russian march toward the Pacific Ocean from the upper reaches of the Aldan River with the departure from the Butalskiy stockade fort was headed by Ivan Yuriev Moskvitin, a Cossack from Tomsk. Ivan Rebrov discovered the Yana Bay. He Departed from the Yana River, reached the Indigirka River by sea, and built two stockade forts there. 1641 The Cossack foreman, Mikhail Stadukhin, was sent to the Kolyma River. 1642 The Krasnoyarsk Cossack, Ivan Erastov, went down the Indigirka River up to its mouth and by sea reached the mouth of the Alazeya River, being the first one at this river and the first one to deliver the information about the Chukchi. 1643 Cossacks F. Chukichev, T. Alekseev, I. Erastov, and others accomplished the sea crossing from the mouth of the Alazeya River to the Lena. M. Stadukhin and D. Yarila (Zyryan) arrived at the Kolyma River and founded the Nizhnekolymskiy stockade fort on its bank.
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  • The Following Section on Early History Was Written by Professor William (Bill) Barr, Arctic Historian, the Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary
    The following section on early history was written by Professor William (Bill) Barr, Arctic Historian, The Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary. Prof. Barr has published numerous books and articles on the history of exploration of the Arctic. In 2006, William Barr received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the recorded history of the Canadian North from the Canadian Historical Association. As well, Prof. Barr, a known admirer of Russian Arctic explorers, has been credited with making known to the wider public the exploits of Polar explorations by Russia and the Soviet Union. HISTORY OF ARCTIC SHIPPING UP UNTIL 1945 Northwest Passage The history of the search for a navigable Northwest Passage by ships of European nations is an extremely long one, starting as early as 1497. Initially the aim of the British and Dutch was to find a route to the Orient to grab their share of the lucrative trade with India, Southeast Asia and China, till then monopolized by Spain and Portugal which controlled the route via the Cape of Good Hope. In 1497 John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), sponsored by King Henry VII of England, sailed from Bristol in Mathew; he made a landfall variously identified as on the coast of Newfoundland or of Cape Breton, but came no closer to finding the Passage (Williamson 1962). Over the following decade or so, he was followed (unsuccessfully) by the Portuguese seafarers Gaspar Corte Real and his brother Miguel, and also by John Cabot’s brother Sebastian, who some theorize, penetrated Hudson Strait (Hoffman 1961). The first expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage that are definitely known to have reached the Arctic were those of the English captain, Martin Frobisher in 1576, 1577 and 1578 (Collinson 1867; Stefansson 1938).
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  • Industrial Fisheries in the Russian Part of the Bering Sea
    TRAWLING IN THE MIST: INDUSTRIAL FISHERIES IN THE RUSSIAN PART OF THE BERING SEA by Alexey Vaisman Funding for the production of this report was kindly provided by WWF-US and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation : Vaisman, Alexey TRAFFIC Europe-Russia Credit Fish in the hold of a trawler impounded in the Russian part of the Bering Sea TRAWLING IN THE MIST: INDUSTRIAL FISHERIES IN THE RUSSIAN PART OF THE BERING SEA TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements iii Executive Summary iv Background 1 Introduction 3 Methodology 4 History of industrial fisheries in the Russian part of the Bering Sea 6 Overview of the fishery in the 1990s 7 Structure of fisheries administration 10 Fisheries legislation and agreements 10 Management of the fishery 14 Stocks and quotas 14 Enforcement of fisheries legislation 17 Recorded catches in the Russian part of the Bering Sea 19 Fishing gears used in the Bering Sea 21 The fishery species-by-species 23 Alaska Pollack 23 Crabs 28 Cods 32 Pacific Herring 37 Rockfishes 39 Halibuts and flounders 42 Yellowfin Sole and other plaices 44 Shrimps 47 Commander Squid 48 Exports of fisheries products reported from Kamchatka 49 Fisheries violations in the Russian Far East, with specific reference to the Bering Sea 52 Types of violation 55 Factors contributing to illegal activities 62 Inappropriate legislation 62 Weaknesses in the enforcement system 64 Organized crime 66 Conclusions and recommendations 67 References 76 Annex 1: Institutions and terminology associated with Bering Sea fisheries, in English and Russian Annex 2: Reported catches of major industrial fisheries in the North Pacific ii TRAWLING IN THE MIST: INDUSTRIAL FISHERIES IN THE RUSSIAN PART OF THE BERING SEA ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The kind support of WWF-US allowed this report, and the investigations on which it is based, to be translated into reality.
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  • The Arctic and Antarctic – Natural Realms at the Poles
    > At first glance, the Earth’s two polar regions appear to have much in common: Their terrestrial and marine landscapes are characterized by ice and snow, darkness dominates for half of The Arctic and Antarctic – the year, and survival is limited to those organisms that can adapt to very extreme conditions. But in spite of the striking parallels there are fundamental differences between the Arctic and Antarctic – 1 natural realms at the poles ranging from their geography and history of ice formation to their conquest by humankind. 12 > Chapter 01 The Arctic and Antarctic – natural realms at the poles < 13 A brief history of the polar regions > People are fascinated today more than ever by the polar regions of the sich Nutzungskonflikte lösen lassen. Der große Unter- Earth. One reason for this is that wide expanses of the Arctic and Antarctic have not been explored The Earth’s wandering poles schied zur schwachen Nachhaltigkeit besteht darin, dass and are therefore still viewed as frontier regions. Another is that they both have very diverse histories gemäß CNCR verbrauchtes Naturkapital durch gleichwer- with regard to their origins and ice formation. Their numerous aspects still pose many puzzles for The geographic North Pole has a fixed position. It correspondstiges Naturkapital to located ersetzt near werdenthe Boothia muss. Peninsula Eine Substitution in the Canadian Arctic. From science today. the northern intersection of the Earth’s rotational axis withdurch the Sachkapitalthere, it hasoder since ausschließlich wandered to thetechnische northwest and is now moving Earth’s surface. Its coordinates are thus “90 degrees north”. It is at a speed of around 55 kilometres per year.
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