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



REVIEWS 79

explore large parts of the north coast of the North Ameri-
can mainland, its members also made detailed scientific
observations and recordings and compiled extensive col-
lections of botanical, zoological, and geological interest.
The expedition also launched the career of three of the
most famous and influential polar explorers of the first half
of the century: Franklin, John Richardson, and George
Back. And, perhaps most importantly, the extreme hard-
ships of the journey led to tragedy and the deaths of 11 of
its 20 members. These calamities were, in turn, so well-
publicised that they became major factors in developing
the popular images of the Arctic that flourished throughout
the western world for much of the rest of the century. This
despite the fact that the only first-hand published account
of the expedition for a century and a half was Franklin's
long and tedious Narrative of a journey to the shores of the
Polar Sea (Franklin 1823).

Several years ago, Stuart Houston of the University of
Saskatchewan completed a remarkable academic labour
that had taken him more than two decades: editing,
annotating, and introducing the journals and other expedi-
tion materials of the three naval officers serving under
Franklin. As opposed to Franklin's book, which had been
designed for reading by the British lay public, each of these
journals was an official document, written without the
concern of what the public might think. Thus, each of the
three volumes that Houston edited opened up new vistas in
understanding the expedition, not only because the use of
the journals allowed differing, more personal perspectives
on previously recorded events, as well as insights into the
specific individuals recording those events, but because
the men were at times separated and therefore were writing
about different occurrences in different times. This trilogy
was further increased in significance with the recent pub-
lication of Franklin's own official journals and corre-
spondence (Davis 1995), an effort that expanded and
deepened the understanding of both the expedition and its
leader's perceptions.

These two volumes are the initial paperback editions of
the first two volumes of Houston's masterly trio, both of
which have long been out of print and have become hard-
to-find and very expensive commodities. Released fol-
lowing the publication of Houston's volume on the expe-
dition materials of George Back (Houston 1994), and
almost in sync with Davis' Franklin opus, these two books
allow polar scholars who were not on the scene a decade or
two ago to complete the cycle of primary publications
about the Arctic Land Expedition.

To the Arctic by canoe records the journal entries of
Midshipman Robert Hood, an astute observer of both
nature and mankind, and a very talented artist as well.
Unfortunately, Hood's writings — which showed an im-
pressive understanding not only of his naval colleagues but
of North American native peoples and their relationships
to both their environment and the steadily encroaching
onslaught of men of European descent — ended prema-
turely, because he was killed by a voyageur on the return
south from the Arctic coast. Houston has combined

Hood's journals with extensive background information,
annotation, and commentary on Hood's paintings, a number
of which are reproduced in the book.

Arctic ordeal — presenting the journal of Richardson,
the expedition naturalist — is a more involved work, as it
required not only a detailed introduction and careful com-
mentary on the journal, but extensive annotation about
Richardson's many and varied scientific observations,
including those on geology, botany, birds, and land and
water wildlife. However, by carefully editing together
Richardson's journals and his official report, Houston has
managed, despite his attention to historical accuracy and
the presentation of a mass of scientific detail, to make the
book flow with the excitement usually reserved for a less
scholarly publication.

These two books legitimately received extensive praise
when they were first published. Now that the final of the
three works has also made a positive impact on polar
community, those who value polar scholarship should be
grateful to McGill-Queen's for making the first two acces-
sible again. (Beau Riffenburgh, Scott Polar Research
Institute, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cam-
bridge CB2 1ER.)

References
Davis, R.C. (editor). 1995. Sir John Franklin's journals and

correspondence: the first Arctic Land Expedition, 1819-
1822. Toronto: The Champlain Society.

Franklin, J. 1823. Narrative of ajourney to the shores of the
Polar Sea in the years 1819, 20, 21, and 22. London:
John Murray.

Houston, C.S. (editor). 1994. Arctic artist: the journal and
paintings of George Back, midshipman with Franklin.
Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University
Press.

PAST GLACIAL ENVIRONMENTS: SEDIMENTS,
FORMS AND TECHNIQUES. John Menzies (Editor).
1996. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. xxiv + 598 p,
illustrated, soft cover. ISBN 0-7506-2352-7. £40.00.

Past glacial environments represents an attempt to sum-
marise what is currently understood about the various
aspects of glacial geology with respect to the Pleistocene
and pre-Pleistocene glaciations. The book consists of 17
chapters that have been written (and co-written) by 18
contributors. Subject matter varies widely, from sedimen-
tary analysis of glacigenic geology, to descriptions of
laboratory techniques used to make such analysis possible.
The volume is edited by John Menzies and is intended for
use as an undergraduate-level text book. It is therefore
assumed that the reader possesses some previous knowl-
edge about glaciology and glacial-geology.

This text book claims to offer a great deal. There is
certainly a place in the market for an all-encompassing
undergraduate text relating to the glacial-geology of ice-
age activity. However, after initial examination of the
book, one becomes quickly disappointed with it. The main
reason for this is that it has no obvious structure. Certainly
the book has an 'aims and objectives' section at the start,