GREENLAND JOURNEY Edited by E lse Wegener
Alfred Wegener, who led the German expedition to Green- land of 1930-31, died on a sledge journey over the ice-cap, but the expedition completed its work of measuring the thickness of the ice-cap, under the leadership of his brother, Kurt Wegener. Now his wife has edited this account of it (Blackie, I2S. 6d.), which is written by different members of the party, and contains extracts from the surviving portions of Alfred Wegener's diary. As a compilation it is lacking in the sort of human interest that often transforms a record of scientific achievement into a book of more than special appeal. But, given a certain interest in arctic geography, the non-specialist will find something to appeal to him—even if it is only to learn how the German mind tackles a piece of difficult organisation, and reacts to the hardships and accidents of camp-life in the Arctic. The mechanical efficiency of the enterprise, reflected in the precise and often pedantic tidiness of this book, was relieved by such sports as whistling symphonies and quartets, and reading Goethe. The book, too, has its lighter moments.
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