REVIEWS 77

history, a not unnatural reflection of the compiler's exper-
tise, but also perhaps of the nature of the University of
AlaskaFairbanks' collections, where scientific works tend
to be found in several departmental collections rather than
the main Elmer E. Rasmuson Library where Falk works.
Such minor criticisms apart, this is a worthy addition to the
series, with the selections well chosen and informatively
annotated. With many years' experience of Alaskana,
Falk clearly knows this literature well and gives the im-
pression of having read a good proportion of it.

Whilst Falk's volume fills an obvious gap, the Falkland
Islands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands
have been covered by two previous volumes in the World
Bibliographical Series, The Antarctic (1994) and The
Atlantic Ocean (1985), containing 69 and 142 entries,
respectively, for these islands. Clearly, those specifically
interested in the Falklands will appreciate the more-fo-
cused coverage that a dedicated volume allows, although
it is perhaps a pity that the limitation to primarily English-
language works meant that the greater space available
could not be utilized by including a much greater represen-
tation of Argentinian, other South American, and other
European non-English perspectives both on the 1982 war
itself and on preceding events. That said, Day does include
some of the most important non-English language works,
and here, as elsewhere, his selections appear sound and his
annotations informative.

Returning to the question posed by this review's intro-
duction. Clearly these are two highly competent bibliog-
raphies. Falk's book is informed by its compiler's famili-
arity with both state and literature developed during many
years. The selective, annotated format of the World
Bibliographical Series allows him to communicate much
of this knowledge, whereas a comprehensive Alaskan
bibliography would simply overwhelm. Day's book
presents an interesting contrast. Whatever Day's expert
knowledge of these islands — and one would guess that it
was much more considerable at the conclusion of this work
than at its origin — his prime qualification as its compiler
is his unrivalled expertise in making use of libraries,
indexes, and indeed bibliographies. The success of his
book thus is itself an instructive illustration of the continu-
ing need for the bibliographer's art. (William Mills, Scott
Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge,
Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1ER.)

References

Plafker, G., and H.C. Berg (eds). 1994. The geology of
Alaska. Boulder: Geological Society of America.

Wickersham, J. 1927. A bibliography of Alaskan literature,
1724-1924. Cordova, AK: Alaska Agricultural College
and School of Mines.

A DEATH ON THE BARRENS. George James Grinnell.
1996. Toronto: Northern Books, vi + 333 p, illustrated, soft
cover. ISBN 0-96804040-3. $Can25.00.

A death on the barrens is an interesting puzzle indeed.
George James Grinnell's book is surely one of the most
uneven, wandering pieces of prose ever published, post-

modern experiments in end-of-the-millennium alienation
and fragmentation not excepted. If a book is to be meas-
ured by classical aesthetic standards alone — balance,
proportion, unity of focus and action, etc—A death on the
barrens can hardly be said to succeed. On the other hand,
if a book's success depends on the emotional bond it
establishes between author and reader, Grinnell's book
accomplishes precisely what its author set out to do. It is
certainly one of the most subjective human responses to an
experience of wilderness travel that I have ever read.

At its core, A death on the barrens is a story of a canoe
trip across the barrenlands of northern Canada in the
1950s. Related in the first person by one of the canoeists,
the book offers an innovative variation on the popular
narrative of wilderness travel, of which there are many
examples. What is unique about Grinnell' s approach — at
least, initially — is his attention to group dynamics within
the six-man party. For the most part, Grinnell's emphasis
sheers away from the familiar celebrations of nature's
beauties, the excitement of running rapids, or the challenge
of difficult portages. Instead, the first three-quarters of the
book explores the politics of leadership, an issue made
particularly relevant by a perceived shortage of food on a
journey that steadily takes the party deeper and deeper into
the heart of the uninhabited barrens.

As I read A death on the barrens, I was excited by
Grinnell's innovative approach. Having read numerous
accounts of wilderness travel, I tire rather quickly of those
books that do little more than temporarily transport me
from my armchair to a vicariously imagined outdoor life.
Rather, travel writers who succeed in capturing my interest
must offer some unique quality, whether it is the lyric of
simplicity of Sigurd Olsen or the humour of R.M. Patterson.
What Grinnell's narrative offers — or at least promises —
is an exploration of the human response to authority and
leadership within a small but highly dependent group. No
doubt, I was especially alert to such matters, having
recently completed a major project on John Franklin's
canoe journey of 1819-1822, a project in which Franklin's
style of leadership commanded significant attention.

Thus, I began reading/1 death on the barrens with great
interest in the group dynamics that Grinnell reveals.
Roughly three-quarters of the way through the book,
however, the investigation of leadership becomes lost in a
maze of other themes. These other themes — wilderness
travel as spiritual metaphor, the journey of personal growth,
the eulogy of a great man, the corruption of human insti-
tutions, the morality of a Wordsworthian natural universe
— are the familiar fare of scores of wilderness travel
accounts, and the uniqueness that initially made Grinnell's
book attractive disappears.

Having said that, all these odds and ends of theme, this
helterskelter of responses, contribute to the humanity — if
not to the classical aesthetics — of the book. One man's
life was lost on the 'recreational' journey in the summer of
1955 (perplexingly, the death arose from drowning, not
from starvation, as the earlier passages of the book fore-
shadow), and sadly, decades later, Grinnell lost his sons in



78 REVIEWS

a similar canoeing accident. The deaths of Grinnell's sons
have no connection with the events of the 1950s barrenlands
trip, but, as one might well imagine, those deaths three
decades later did give Grinnell pause to rethink his own
earlier experience.

This much is history, one might say, and should have
no bearing on our evaluation of the artistry of the book. But
it is the realization of Grinnell's 40-year struggle to tell this
story of growth — and the loss that always accompanies
growth — that forges the undeniable emotional link be-
tween author and reader. Writing the book had, no doubt,
a crucial therapeutic effect on Grinnell. And while A death
on the barrens adheres to few of those classical unities
Aristotle lauded in Greek tragedy, the bond of humanity
any reader must feel through Grinnell's troubled effort to
share his loss creates a great deal of empathy in the reader.
I am indeed a more complete person for having read this
book, and one wonders if a book can ever achieve a higher
end. (Richard C. Davis, Department of English, Univer-
sity of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary,
Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.)

THE FROZEN ECHO: GREENLAND AND THE
EXPLORATION OF NORTH AMERICA, ca AD
1000-1500. Kirsten A. Seaver. 1996. Stanford: Stanford
University Press, xviii + 407 p, illustrated, hard cover.
ISBN 0-8047-2514-4. £40.00.

It must be stated straightaway that this work is a major
achievement. The author has tackled difficult questions
concerning the nature of Norse settlement in Greenland.
She has also examined the relationships between those
settlements and the exploration and exploitation of North
America and of the North Atlantic by other Europeans,
most notably the English and Portuguese. A central
question is, of course, what was the cause, or what were the
causes, that led to the extinction of the Greenland colo-
nies?

The author uses a kaleidoscopic variety of sources, and
approaches the questions she has set for herself from the
point of view of different disciplines. The sources include
historical texts, many in Scandinavian languages, and also
the results of archaeological and cartographical studies.
The book is divided into two parts. Firstly, there is a
detailed study of North Atlantic exploration by the Norse,
with an exhaustive analysis of the economic, social, and
ecclesiastical conditions of the Greenland colonies. This
is followed by an examination of the official and unofficial
maritime efforts in the North Atlantic by, for example, the
Bristol merchants and of the impact of these on Greenland.
The author's central conclusion relating to the fate of the
Greenland colonists is that:

...both circumstantial evidence and common sense
suggest that the Greenlanders, who had so clearly taken
active part in the North Atlantic economic community
throughout the fifteenth century, had remained oppor-
tunists to the end and joined the early-sixteenth-cen-
tury European surge toward North America.
As noted, the range and breadth of the author's sources

are breath-taking and the sheer diligence with which she
has tackled them is an example to all who undertake
historical study. Each of her chapters is a comprehensive
analysis of its subject, and they inter-relate well. The
totality of the work is a very impressive contribution on a
difficult topic.

However, the book is, in some respects, poorly written.
The author, in her acknowledgements, comments on the
input of her editor, and one feels that the work would have
had a more consistent style if the editing had been either
more or less rigorous. In places, the author's approach is
journalistic, and the uneasy juxtaposition of styles makes
for uneven reading. Some of the writing is unfortunate.
The first sentence of the acknowledgements — 'It is a truth
universally acknowledged that anyone writing a book
must be in need of a supportive spouse' — caused this
reviewer to wince. One may wonder if the author is aware
that Jane Austen was in fact single! Other examples are:
'The cresting wave of European exploration slammed onto
the shores of the Americas' (page 254), and the comment
that John Cabot 'would try to go Columbus one better'
(page 265).

A further deficiency is the illustrations. The maps are
adequate as far as they go, but it seems curious that the
overall map of the North Atlantic, relevant to the entire
argument of the book, is less than half a page in size and is
relegated to page 215. The maps of the Greenland settle-
ments are excellent, but the reproductions of contempo-
rary maps and charts are on so reduced a scale as to make
them of little use. The photographs of areas in the Green-
land settlements, in particular those on pages 10 and 20,
give little useful support to the text. Those of archaelogical
relics are much better and have been carefully selected.

To sum up, a worthy effort, and one that will be
required reading for those with specialised interests in the
period and area. However, with a more even style and
consistent editing, a better book could have been pro-
duced, which might have served the needs both of special-
ists and of the more general reader. Sadly, this is not the
book to do this. (Ian R. Stone, Tartu University, Ulikooli
18, Tartu, Estonia.)

TO THE ARCTIC BY CANOE 1819-1821: THE
JOURNAL AND PAINTINGS OF ROBERT HOOD,
MIDSHIPMAN WITH FRANKLIN. C. Stuart Houston
(Editor). 1995. Montreal, Kingston, London, Buffalo:
McGill-Queen's University Press, xxxvi + 217 p, illus-
trated, soft cover. ISBN 0-7735-1222-5. £13.95.

ARCTIC ORDEAL: THE JOURNAL OF JOHN
RICHARDSON, SURGEON-NATURALIST WITH
FRANKLIN, 1820-1822. C. Stuart Houston (Editor).
1995. Montreal, Kingston, London, Buffalo: McGill-
Queen's University Press, xxxiv + 349 p, illustrated, soft
cover. ISBN 0-7735-1223-3. £13.95.

Unquestionably one of the most significant exploring
efforts of the nineteenth century was the Arctic Land
Expedition of 1819-1822, under the command of Lieuten-
ant John Franklin. Not only was it the first expedition to