280 REVIEWS success of Ahtna and Cook Inlet corporations or why the Metlakatla 1904the Falkland Islands government, under the British crown, Tsimshians’ history led to acceptanceof a reservation. stepped inby issuing regulationson the new industry in 1905. This led Inevitably the report will draw comparisons with his Mackenzie in 1908 to the issue of Letters Patent announcing that the Falkland Valley report. The village hearings were the same but the review was Islands Dependencies, comprising South Georgia and the South Sand- not government-sponsored. It was funded by bingo games and dona- wich Islands, were British possessions. After 1931 shore-based whal- tions, without money for extensive research. While the book deals withing gradually began to decline with the innovationof pelagic whaling, social conditions, the focus is lesson development: rather it deals with but continued until 1964, when the last whaling station closed down. restructuring the 1971 settlement. In presenting his case, Berger relies But British administration on the island has been continuous since heavily on thehearing testimony, some federal reports and court 1905, apart from thebrief interregnum of the Argentine occupation. decisions, reflecting restricted funding. Allthese aspects of the20th-century history of theisland are Though occasionally some legal terms such as fee simple patent or extremelywell described by theauthor, who also gives summary encumbrance may not be part of most readers’ daily vocabulary, this accounts of the principal expeditions or investigations that have con- well-written and well-organized report is an important studyof native tributed to our knowledgeof the island, including the workof the South claims in Alaska for laityand specialist - a case study of indigenous Georgia Survey under the leadershipof Duncan Carse in four seasons people (or the “Fourth World,” as he mentions at the end of the book).between 195 1 and 1957 andof the British Antarctic Survey, which has maintainedscientific stations at Grytviken, 1969-82, and on Bird Robert J. MacDonald Island in the north since 1972. The events of April 1982 are recounted Coordinator, Senior Citizens’ Course in detail. Not the least valuable part of the book are the excellent The Arctic Instituteof North America syntheses on physical sciencies and natural history in South Georgia. The University of Calgary With 250 illustrations (including adequate maps and excellent photo- Calgary, Alberta, Canada graphs, manyof great archival interest) and a bibliographyof about 90 T2N IN4 items, the book is likely to remain the standard authority on the island for many years to come.

G.Hattersley-Smith THE ISLAND OF SOUTH GEORGIA. ByROBERT HEADLAND. Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. f13.95. US$39.50. British Antarctic Survey Natural Environment Research Council The author of this book was a biological assistant at the British Madingley Road Antarctic Survey station at Grytviken at the time of the Argentine Cambridge CB3 OET invasion on 3April 1982 (he had previously served there during England 1977-80). He and his companions conducted themselves with courage, dignity and (as far as circumstances allowed) considerable resource when confrontedby force majeure.They were removed at gunpoint to VILHJALMURSTEFANSSON AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF anArgentine ship bound for Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego, and ARCTIC TERRESTRIAL SCIENCE. Editedby G. EDGAR FOLK, JR., eventually repatriated through Uruguay. The unwelcome interlude of andMARY ARPFOLK. Iowacity, Iowa: The University ofIowa, 1984. threeweeks before the island was repossessed by British forces xiii + 239 p. Softbound. US$l5.00. provides the finale to this book, and also presages the end of an era for, as a direct result of the conflict in the South Atlantic, South Georgia While a school boy I read Stefansson’s books as examples of high ceased to be a Dependencyof the Falkland Islands and became, with adventure. Eventually, some localities became points of reference and the South Sandwich Islands, a separate territory by Statutory Instru- hisaccounts were reread with interest. In hislater years he still ment of 3 October 1985. It has therefore been a timely occasion to takeappeared now and then as a charming and enthusiastic advocateof life stock of the history, geology and natural history of the island. in the far north. On the occasion of his hundredth birth-year, it was a South Georgia was probably first sighted by Antonio de la Roch6 pleasure to attend a symposium in his honor. His widow’s accountof (Antoine de la Roche), a London merchant of French parentage, in their 20 years together was fascinating. Only after I had been asked to April 1675 when his350-ton ship (the name of which is not recorded) submit a review of the publication did any misgivings come to mind. was blown off course on a trading voyage to Peru. In June 1756 the His history was discussed with individuals who have been working island was circumnavigated in similar circumstances by the Spanish actively in the Arctic. Our university library has a ofset his books and trading shipLednon passage from Callao, Peru, to Cadiz. However, itsrelated literature; several were secured for perusal. A recent book by positionand extent remained in doubt until the voyage of HMS Richard J. Diubaldo (1978) was found to be critical, to say theIt least. Resolution and Adventure, 1772-75, under the command of Captain seems that our explorer-author appears no better under close scrutiny James Cook, RN, who made thechart fist of the island in January 1775 than others who have achieved notoriety.He isstill a hero to mostof us. and took possession of it for King GeorgeIII under the name “Isle of Duringthe early 1900s a portion of the Canadian Arctic was Georgia.” considered to be unexplored. The mystery concerning Sir John Frank- Cook’s reportsof the abundance offur seals and elephant seals led tolin’s elaborately conceived expeditionof the 1840s had created further British sealers starting workon the island in 1778,soon to be followed interest.Nansen, Sverdrup, Amundsen, and Peary all carried out by Americas. By 1791 there were more than 100 vessels engaged in importantexploration. Within a few years, Vilhjalmur Stefansson securing seal oil and skins in the Southern Ocean, one vessel alone came to personify small-scale effort in learning about the region. His accounting for 57 000 fur seals in a single season. The story of these bookMy Life with the Eskimodid much to establish him as an authority. early operations and ruthless slaughter for money, which is not for the His years of travelin the North were described exuberantly in various squeamish,is admirably described bythe author, who includes a publications and lectures. A popular account, The Friendly Arctic, number of extracts from contemporary accounts. By 1825 the near- expressed many of his thoughts concerning this region and its inhabit- extinction of the fur seal had halted the industry, although there was a ants. Some aspects were controversial and not all matters were seen to brief revival of sealing in the 1870s, following a partial recovery of reflectthe favorably upon the author. Nevertheless Stefansson has been fur seal population. The later complete protection affordedthis species recognized as one of the foremost arctic explorers, who had a great led to the recolonization of its old haunts, which has been one of the aptitude for living there and learning from the native people. Observa- great success stories in conservation. tions concerning diet stimulated research that is still active. The early sealing operations had been unregulated by any govern- In essence, 30 years after his strenuous field activity, Stefansson was ment, but with the introductionof shore-based whalingon the island in a respected scholar and arctic authority. ofSome his visions concerning REVIEWS 281 high latitudes had been foundto be justified. The Universityof North about the same time that Stefansson and Anderson volunteered to live Dakota, where he went to school, the University of Iowa, where he ononly meat for a year as an experiment. earned a degree, and Harvard University, where he had held a scholar- In “An Eskimo Diet Experiment,” Hugh Sinclair described his ship, all had welcomed him belatedly. Many honors were bestowed. personal experience, after observing that these carnivorous people had Dartmouthhad developed an interest in polar research when he neither high cholesterol levels nor arteriosclerosis. He was able to live presented a lecture series in 1947-48. The school then proceeded to in a small, isolated settlement on the northwest Greenland coast and assimilate the library he had compiled, his only personal property of utilize native food high in unsaturated fatty acids. His body weight consequence. The collection on various aspects of the polar regions lowered by about 10 percent, and some plasma fatty acids decreasedby totaled about 70 000 items when he joined the faculty there in 1953. as much as80 percent as blood-clotting time increased about 10 times. Ed and Mary Folk have studied physiologyof mammals native to the “Exercise in the Cold,” by Carl V. Gisolfi, recorded effects of Pt. Barrow area. Appropriately, they initiated a symposium honoring physical training upon subjects exposed to a temperature of 10°C. Stefansson as an explorer and scientist in the centennial year of his Experiments indicated that physical activity increased metabolic rate birth. Their base of operations at the University of Iowa, his alma during cold acclimatization. Body temperatures were elevated with mater, sponsored the gathering. The occasion involved unveiling of a greater-tissue vacuolation and blood flow. bronze bust by Emanuel Otto Hahn and a statement in tribute by the “Lipid Metabolism in Arctic Mammals,” by J. Homer Ferguson, sculptor’s daughter. Evelyn Stefansson Nef, his widow, reviewed the substantiated the thought that an organism can generate heat from explorer-author’spersonal life. A greater portion of thepublished stored body fat. Arctic animals normally maintain high levelsof free volume involved a series of articles on “The Development of Arctic fatty acids in their blood. Experimentally, a diet high in unsaturated fats Terrestrial Science.” produced superior cold resistance. Endocrine factors, such as thyroxin, In Part I, Chapter 6, of the Symposium, Col. Robert Latimer made enable rapid mobilization; a quick response in cold-adapted species is an effort to fix Stefansson’s place in arctic exploration, “A Historic important for survival. The abrupt drop in autumn temperature can be Perspective.” His discoveries may appear modest in comparison with anticipated by photoperiod. Some questions remain, such as how can others. Capt. James Cook, best known for his travels during the 1700s fats be stored selectively in body extremities and how can certain fatty inthe southern hemisphere, had also mapped the Newfoundland- acids be mobilized, leaving others? Labrador coast and sailed along the north coastof Alaska. Dr. James “ArcticBirds in Winter,” by James A. Gessaman, included a Rae, one of the earliest to adopt Eskimo hunting methods, covered a survey of only four year-round inhabitants with quite different habits. widearea and brought back evidence of the Franklin Expedition. Theowl is relatively large and excellently insulated; it can hunt Nansen and Sverdrup, in theFrum, really identified much of the deep efficiently in darkness by coursing. The raven is primarily a scavenger polar ocean basin and explored parts of the eastern archipelago. Roald with diverse food tastes and a relatively high metabolic rate. Gyrfal- Amundsen, lost whileon a rescue mission in 1928, can be recognized cons are of a size comparable to the others but more energy efficient, for accomplishments at both poles. He was one of thefist to explore for they can normally observe prey and secure them by short flights extensively by air. Stefansson anticipated occupation of drifting ice from a perch. Rock and willow ptarmiganare herbivores only half or a islandsby the Soviets, 1937 and 1941, and the US., 1952-70. third the body sizeof the others,so need to have a high metabolic rate. Additionally he proposed accessby submarine, such as thatby Wilkins “The Arctic Scientist,” by Warren0. Essler, explored what further in 193 1, and served as a consultant prior to the voyagesNautilus andof possibilities exist in experimentation by electronics. A revolution in Skate under the ice. Commander James Calvert sent a letter post- fact-finding and communication has already added data more rapidly marked the North Pole in 1958. Stefansson’s advocacy of trans-polar than they can be assimilated. Implanted transmitters can now provide flights to utilize the advantageof a great-circle route was recognized by just about any needed information from a remote locality and deliver it Scandinavian Air Lines and others. to a conveniently situated laboratory. There is no practical limit in To his credit, Stefansson’s recognition came largely through the either category. effort of publications and lectures. His writings were creative and Walter W. Nassichuk summarized the present knowledge concern- sometimes purposefully controversial. During his years in the north, inghe exploitable mineral deposits in “Arctic Islands.” Petroleum is the accomplishedspectacular feats while adapting to life there as the qost importantresource. Oil exploration on theArctic Slope and natives had done. As an ethnographer, his observation in Victoria offshorehas progressed so rapidlyduring the five years since his Island and Coronation Gulf involved a culture still in the stone age, original manuscript was prepared thatall figures on reserve estimates although the people employed native copper for tools and projectiles. QOW significantly greater. Stefansson’s early speculations did not

Part I1 of the Symposium was intended to be the more substantial \emph ~ ize petroleum. He forecast other possibilitiesof development in portion. It contains a series of chapters on various scientific aspects high latitudes - most of which turned out tobe too optimistic. Land somewhat related to Stefansson’s interests. Most are summaries of areas in the Arctic are still a desert with relatively low productive research published elsewhere. The first title, “Human Nutrition,” by capacity; large-scale domestication of animals for meat and wool has Johnson et ul., was a matter of prime concern to the arctic author. not proven feasible. He visualized fossil fuels as replacement for drift Although the essential nature of fresh food had been known for a wood couple and seal oil. Coal deposits in the eastern Canadian Arctic have of hundredyears, Stefansson’s espousal of a pure meat diet was been used by explorers but are too thin and remote to be regarded as regarded as imaginative. Fresh meat from large mammals, especially commercial; the situation in Spitzbergen is much better. Metallic ores seals, was demonstrated tobe adequate for strenuous activity in a cold fall in the same general category, although consequential lead-zinc climate.His advocacy of pemmicanas a staple may have been deposits have been mapped in the Cornwallis District. A token ship- misunderstood. Peary had apparently used it as a major portion of his ment for assay purposes was made in 1973. rationsand the Kurluk carriedhundreds of pounds as basic fare. Surface indications of petroleum were known at Ft. Normanon the Clinical survival tests by the armed services have shown thatthis kind Mackenzie River historically. Because of its strategic position, some of processed meat can serve only as a supplement. small productive capacity was established during World War I1 but “The Discovery of the Essential Fatty Acids,” by G. Edgar Folk, none was trans-shipped. At the same time, gas fields were drilled in the acknowledgedfield tests made by Stefanssonin 1909-10. In his Naval Reserve near F’t. Barrow. Stefansson lived long enough to see writings based upon those observations, it was noted that the Eskimo exploratory drilling initiatedin the eastern archipelago, a test that found knew small mammals and lean caribou would not sustain life. Addi- only a little gas in southern Melville Island. Later in 1962, a signifi- tionally, the organs, marrow, and fatter portions of a carcass were cantly large oil accumulation was discovered in northwestern Melville. normally consumed in preference to the lean meat in rump and loin. Finding a giant oil and gas field near Prudhoe Bay in 1969 suddenly Similarly, polar bears ate only the back and parts of the hide from a changed the developmental picture, because it justified construction of seal. A fat-deficiency syndrome was examined in laboratory animalsat a 1000-mile pipeline to the ice-free south coast of Alaska. 282 REVIEWS

The Arctic is still in an early exploratory phase, with relatively few graphical diversity of caribou-hunting cultures is evident in the variety test bores for such a vast territory. It is considered tobe a proven oil of hunting techniques and strategies documented. province, and most of the logistical problems have been solved.On this This volume, an analysisof ethnohistorical and archaeological data basis, probability figures for discoverable reserves are a standard tacticpertaining to a caribou-hunting site, Aasivissuit, “The Great Summer sufficiently realistic for planning purposes. Nassichuk’s revised state- Camp,” in the interior of West Greenland, represents a major contribu- ment gives a current viewpoint: tion to the literature on the cultural-ecological relationships between In the regions that Stefansson travelled, the search for oil and gas has caribou hunters and their prey. continued relentlessly.In the Arctic Islands alone, some 180 wells have In a brief introduction the research at Aasivissuit is framed within a been drilled and nineteen are classed as discoveries; ten are gasfields, cultural resource preservation paradigm. The research goal was not to four oil, and five oil-and-gas. Under anticipated economic conditions excavatethe entire site; rather, a meticulous sampling design and several of these are believed to be commercial, although the calculated small-scale excavations were conducted to determine the occupational recoverable reserve is lessthan a half-billionbarrels of oiland 20 trillion history of the site and reveal the changing dynamics of the seasonal cubicfeet of gas intotal. Undiscovered resources are expected to exploitation of caribou. Following the introduction there is an encapsu- approximate five billion barrels and more than I00 trillion cubic feet. Greater potentialities arelikely to liein the SverdrupBasin, tothe north, lation of the geography, climate, and available resources of interior where costs are higher. Within the last few years more than 160 wells West Greenland, which serve to define the physical restraints operating havebeen drilled in the Beaufort Sea-Mackenzie Delta area with a on caribou and caribou hunters. The authors conclude their reviewof discovery of about one billion barrels of oiland 10 trillion cubic feetof caribou biology with a discussion of the dramatic fluctuations that gas. This area is expected to contain nearly ten billionbarrels and 100 characterizecaribou population size. Information is derived from trillion cubic feet yet undiscovered,on the basis of calculated estimates historical sources that reveal periodic radical oscillations in caribou from comparable provinces and conditions known to exist here. That numbers.Climatic change, human predation, and overgrazing of portion to the west of the international boundary with Alaskais virtually foraging areas are all considered as factors that might contribute to the untested. The situation has been foundto be relatively complex, struc- cyclical decline in caribou population size, nobut clear causal relation- turally and stratigraphically. An average of resource estimates released by the National Petroleum Council of the United States gives about six ships are derived. Resolution of this problem would go a long way billion onshore and 12 billion offshore for AlaskanArctic recoverable toward facilitating models of interior hunting adaptations throughout oil. Comparable gaspotential is 22 trilliononshore and 27 trillion the circumpolar north. offshore. Anthropological research in Greenland, as well as in many partsof In the final articleof the symposium, “Relation between Barometric the Arctic, has a coastal bias, a reflectionof the maritime focusof most Pressure and Geophysics,” Terris Moore explores some mysteries of nativeeconomies. Logistical constraints, and the defending insect high-latitude surveying. Sea level has been found to be notoriously hordes of the interior, have kept most researchers bound to navigable vague as a precise reference, and becauseof its oblate form the earth’s waterways and windy shore-side encampments. The authors of this only positive measure is from the center. It is important to know that work break from this tradition in presenting a surprisingly vivid view of altimeter measures in aircraft consistently read lower for mountain the inland summertime caribou huntof the West Greenland Inuit. As a crests than the same observationon the ground. Other variables can be specificcase study it provides substantial data for reconstructing calibrated. Contraction of the earth’s atmospheric envelope at the polessettlement-subsistence patterns in prehistoric and historic Inuit society is accentuated during the winter season and represents another possibleinGreenland. As a model of interdisciplinaryresearch, a tightly complication, when simple devices are used for record. In a practical composed presentation that buildson data derived from ethnohistorical sense, the 27 miles difference in polar diameter has little meaning; andethnographic sources, archaeology, and archaeozoological and however, mountain peaksof Alaska and the Yukon extend well above environmental analyses, it should serve to encourage similar research the atmospheric median and are thus10 percent physiologically higher elsewhere in the Arctic wherever caribou are a significant prey species. than comparable elevations near the equator. Thestudy focuses on researchat Aasivissuit, a major summer caribou-huntingcamp situated approximately halfway between the William M. Furnish coast and the inland ice. As prelude to the archaeology, the authors Professor Emeritus provide a detailed presentationof the interior caribou hunt as derived Department of Geology fromhistoric and ethnographic sources. Inuit drawings (including Trowbridge Hall severalby Aron of Kangek,c. 1858) andnumerous photographs The Universiv of Iowa (1898-1958) area valuable complement to the text. The authors’ Iowa City, Iowa 52242 review of the ethnohistorical material adopts a broad anthropological U.S.A. perspective: among the topics covered are a discussion of the composi- tion of hunting bands, the roles of women (the interior hunt was a family affair), the factors influencing resource-scheduling decisions, and the social aspectsof the caribou hunt (including leadership roles, AASIVISSUIT-THE GREAT SUMMER CAMP: ARCHAEOLOG- the acquisition of prestige, and the maintenance of social relationships ICAL, ETHNOGRAPHICAL AND ZOO-ARCHAEOLOGICAL among members of an otherwise dispersed population). The authors STUDIES OF A CARIBOU-HUNTING SITEIN WEST GREEN- also discuss the nature of the journey from the coast to the interior camp LAND.By BJARNE GRPINNOW,MORTEN MELDGAARD and J0RN at Aasivissuit and the variety of dwelling types constructed during the BERGLUND NIELSEN. Kommissionen for videnskabelige Unders~gel- caribouhunt. Hunting strategies are presentedas dynamic and ser i Grginland (The Commission for Scientific Research in Green- processual, with considerable variability as a result of both changing land). Meddelelser om GrGnland, Man & Society 5, 1983. 96 p. ecological factors (principally the size of the caribou population) and Tables, figs., appendix. Softbound. Dkr. 177.20. the advent of different hunting technologies (useof kayaks, bow and arrows, guns). For the Greenland Inuit, caribou represent an important Possibly more so than any other single game species, caribou have foodsource (arctic epicureans will appreciate the references to predominated in the affairs of northern hunters. Evidence recovered angornardluk, qajoq assigaq,and nerukkaq, the later a fermented liver fromthe Upper Paleolithic caves of ice-age Europe and from salad made with the contents of caribou stomachs). Equally important Paleoindian camp sites in the New World demonstrate the antiquity ofwere skins for clothing and sleeping robes and antlers for weapon parts. adaptations based on the predation of caribou. Archaeological and Thearchaeological work at Aasivissuit neatly complements the ethnographic research in the circumpolar north, from Scandinavia to preceding ethnohistorical accounts. The remains of a wide variety of Siberia and from Alaska to Greenland, readily attest to the central role structures, including house features, tent rings, storage cairns, hunting of caribou in many northern economies. The antiquity and the geo- features, stone fox traps, graves and stone alignments (the hopping-