from the intrinsic beauty of most of the creatures with which he has to deal, all the accompaniments of his work are æsthetic, and removed from those more or less offensive features which are so often necessarily incidental to the study of anatomy and physiology in the higher animals." This book is Volume XLIX of the "International Scientific Series."
Geology and the Deluge. By the Duke of Argyll. Glasgow: Wilson & McCormick. Pp. 47.
This is the substance of a lecture delivered in Glasgow, in which is considered the question whether any scientific evidence exists that there has occurred a deluge, or a great submergence of the land under the sea over a considerable area of the globe; of a temporary character; accompanied with the destruction of animal life; since the birth or development of man; in other words, corresponding with the flood described in the Bible. The author finds evidence of such a flood, not only in universal tradition, but also in many superficial geological facts; among them, the existence of beds of recent marine gravel on mountaintops in Wales and other countries; the loess, with its abundant land-shells; the extinct mammalian fauna of Europe, of the sudden destruction of which he adduces many evidences; and the masses of mammoths in New Siberia. The evidences of the contemporaneousness of man with the phenomena are discussed, and the question of his antiquity incidentally. The time of the flood in question is believed by the author to have been about the close of the glacial period.
The Rescue of Greely. By Commander W. S. Schley, U. S. Navy, and Professor J. R. Soley, U. S. Navy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 277, with Illustrations and Maps. Price, $3.
This book gives a plain account of the Greely expedition, of the attempts that failed to relieve it, and of the one that finally succeeded. It has been the aim of the writers to describe the events simply as they occurred, and avoid all criticism of the persons who took part in them. This they have done, in the colorless manner in which all stories ought to be told on which the world is to be called upon to pass an impartial judgment. The relation is begun with a general description of the region in which the search was prosecuted, as "the gateway of the Polar Sea," and an account of the circumpolar stations which were established under the auspices of the International Polar Conference, with which Greely's expedition eventually became connected. Then are given accounts of Greely's Lady Franklin Bay expedition and the unsuccessful relief expeditions of 1882 and 1884, and the detailed account of the expedition under Commander Schley which succeeded in bringing back the survivors of Greely's command. Of the spirit in which the last expedition was prosecuted, the author of the book says that all of the officers and men "knew that the object of the voyage was something above and beyond the ordinary calls of service, and. . . felt an earnestness of purpose which a mere exploring expedition would hardly have called forth. At any rate, whatever may have been their feelings, they certainly evinced a determination to spare no pains, to incur any exposure, to assume any required risk, and to be unflagging in watching for opportunities to gain a mile, a yard, or a foot, on the journey toward Greely and his party."
In the Lena Delta. A Narrative of the Search for Lieutenant-Commander De Long and his Companions, followed by an Account of the Greely Relief Expedition. By George W. Melville. Edited by Melville Philips. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 497, with Maps and Illustrations. Price, $2.50.
Of the world's heroes, the men of the Jeannette Expedition were certainly among the noblest, the sturdiest, and the most enduring. Whether we regard the single incident of the attitude in which Lieutenant De Long's body was found, with the arm frozen stiff in the position in which it was raised and bent to cast his journal to a safer place; or whether we consider the trials and sufferings and pluck of Melville's party, of eleven men, during their trying and lonely journey—we can almost, and when we take note, as well as of these incidents, of the history of the expedition as a whole, we can
