60 REVIEWS

At the end of the book is auseful ofU.S.S.R. andScandinavia portray record of MacMillan’s arctic voyages these northern lands well, but a carto- and an index. Endpaper maps showthe graphic slip, by omission of white, has areas in whichMacMillan sailed and melted the glaciers in Iceland (page 60). travelled. The book is well illustrated; The ‘Oxfordphoto-relief technique’ a negative insteadof a positivehas been successfullygives a three-dimensional used for one photograph. effectto many of the topographical JIM LOTZ“ maps, but the appearance of several is marredby too dark ashade of grey. *CanadaDepartment of NorthernAffairs Thesame happens with the sea-ice and National Resources. symbols and they tend to obscure the lettering, particularly in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. THECANADIAN OXFORD DESK As before, Canada receives the most ATLAS OF THE WORLD, 2nd ed. To- detailed treatment with updated statis- ronto:Oxford University Press. 1963. tics and maps of the country as a whole 120 pages of maps and supplementary andby regions showing topography, tables, 12-page gazetteer of Canada, population,climate, agriculture, and 20-page gazetteer of theworld. 10 x other special topics. For the rest of the 7% inches. $3.95. world, the regional treatment has been Thisrevised edition of “themost rearrangedand eight pages of world popularCanadian compact atlas” is economic maps added. recommended for its excellent editing, Thisatlas, either under the above printing,new statistical information, title, or issued as the Canadian Oxford and additional maps. Of the last named School Atlas, will enjoy the same suc- Arctic readers willnote the zenithal cess as the earlier editions. equidistantprojection of the Arctic R.N. DRUMMOND” (scale 1 in. = 400 mi., p. 1). This is the onlyaddition of directpolar interest *GeographyDepartment, McGill Univer- althoughminor alterations have been sity. made to mapsof Canada, the Northwest Territories and Antarctica.These in- cluderecognition of Inuvik and Fro- I POLL By SILVIOZAVATTI. Milan: Fel- bisherBay, inkeeping with their trinelli Editore. 1963. 7 x 41/4inches, 266 increasedimportance since the first pages, 17 plates, numerous sketch maps, edition, and newlocations of airports diagrams, L 500. and communication lines and the latest The book is written for the non-spe- position of the North Magnetic pole.Our cialist interested inthe polar regions and greaterknowledge and exploration of gives information on the major expedi- Antarctica since I.G.Y. are reflected by tions made before 1958, independent of the exclusion of the limitedzone of their scientificsignificance. Scientific “areas notseen by man”, designated facts are offered and controversies ne- previously.Presumably, thegreater glected,perhaps as it shouldbe in a part of the continent has been seen, at book of this nature. In keepingwith least from the air. The legend explains the stated aim to provide adequate ref- the sixcategories of land and sea ice erencefor lay readers, practically all portrayed but otherwisefew changes subjects related to the polar regions are have been made. commented upon. Neverthelessthe con- The double page maps of Eurasia on tents are notdeveloped furtherthan the zenithalequal area projectionin- the advent of the InternationalGeo- cludemuch of northeasternNorth physical Year 1957-1958, and therefore America and permit the representation they are incompleteconsidering the of several significant trans-polar rela- year of publication. It is surprising that tionships such as climate,vegetation, the author missed the chance to intro- populationand communications. Maps duce information available in scientific REVIEWS 61 journals, but gathered his information, Thefirst part includes the problem amongother things, from books also that “occupies the centralposition in written for the intelligent reader. Za- this volume” (p. xi), namely the inter- vatti could have offered a more up-to- mixture of the aborigines and the date outlook of the polar regions with- Norsemen and the fate of both subse- out sacrificing the general character of quent to their meeting. In this complex hisstatements. The reader of Italian sphereOleson leans heavily, but not who is a newcomer to polar literature completely, onthe work of Jon Duason. will enjoy this book. Basing his interpretations on historical MARIOGIOVINETTO” data, sagas, folk lore, and archaeology, Olesonconcludes thatthe Tunnit of *Geophysicaland Polar Research Center, Eskimofolk tales were the Norsemen Department of Geology, Universityof Wis- and thatthe Skraelings of the sagas consin. were aborigines of Dorset culture. He argues that a blending of thesetwo groups,culturally and racially, pro- EARLYVOYAGESANDNORTHERN duced the Thule culturethat subse- APPROACHES. By TRYCGVIJ. OLESON. quentlyextended throughout arctic Ahistory of Canada,Vol. 1. Toronto: Canada and west into Alaska.In coming McLelland and Stewart. 1964. 93’4 x 6 tothese conclusions the author treats inches, xii + 211 pages, illustrated with arctic archaeology and its dull practi- sketchmaps, line drawings and 24 tioners with the same rigour he accords plates. $8.50. SebastianCabot. Arctic archaeologists This isthe first of McLelland and regard Thule culture as an outgrowth Stewart’s seventeen-volume project,the from the northern Alaskan Birnirk cul- Canadian Centenary Series, with W. L. turethat wascarried eastward to Morton as executive editor and D.G. Greenland by population drift roughly Creighton as advisory editor. “The re- about 1000 A.D. Further, most archae- sult, it is hoped, will be scholarly and ologists consider Tunnit and Skraeling readable, at once useful to the student to be Eskimo and Norse terms respec- and of interest to the general reader.” tively for Dorset culture Eskimos. Thus (p. ix). Volume I, by the late Dr. T. J. arctic prehistorians hold interpretations Oleson, professor of history at the Uni- at odds with thosegiven thecentral versity of Manitoba, is lively in style, position in this book. wideranging yet concise, nicely bal- Although he notes that most scholars anced in content,and invigorating by accept an Alaskan origin of Thule cul- its bold interpretations. The book coversture, Oleson neither presents their case the period from about 1000 to 1632 A.D. nor a comprehensive rebuttal of it. His and includes the Norsemenand their basic claim that the oldest Thule sites sagas, Iceland, Greenland, Vinland, the are to be found in Greenland and the Skraelings, the archaeologists’Dorset youngest in Alaska is not documented and Thule cultures, mythical voyages to and it is not supported by archaeolo- America, the hazyhistory of fifteenth gists. His observation that the attempt century exploring in the area, then the to link Thule with Birnirk “can hardly Cabots, Frobisher, Davis, Hudson, But- beregarded as successful”seems un- ton, Bylot, B&n, Munk, Foxe, James, fortunately to refer to a recent paper and many others. About halfthe narra- by the reviewer1 rather than to J. A. tive pertains to Norsemenand Eskimos, Ford’smonographz, which provided and the rest to theirsalty successors up much of the evidenceand framework to 1632. I am unable to comment on the for that paper. His statement that there last-named but I questionwhether ‘lis no evidence for”the eastward spread manyhistorians will approve the au- of Thule ignores a significant, if incom- thor’s harsh judgement of Sebastian plete, body of data. One cannot concur Cabot. Happily, Oleson avoidsan excess withOleson’s conclusion (p. 174) that of Vinland entanglements. the Alaskan origin and eastward spread