Lantis, Margaret

English

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R E V I E W S  PAGEANT OF THE  NORTH. A  photographic  adventure in Canada’s north.  Edited  by  CLIFFORD WILSON The  Ryerson  Press,  Toronto. 1957. 11% x 8% inches; 176 pages. $5.50. About ten years  ago an attractive and popular  book of photographs  reproduced from The  Beaver was  published. It pro- vided in convenient form a generous selection from the many hundreds of technically  outstanding  and beautiful illustrations  for  which t e Hudson’s  Bay Company magazine is famous. The  present  volume  contains  about 175 black and white full-page photographs also  reproduced  from The  Beaver, about half of them having been taken since the earlier  volume  was  published.  Clif- ford Wilson has arranged the photo- graphs  into  a  dozen  groups  and  has provided  a  brief  introduction  for  them. Representative  titles of these  “chapters” are “Indians”,  “Birds  and  Beasts”, “Ships  and  Boats”,  “Eskimos”,  “The Newcomers”. The  work of more  than  fifty  photogra- phers  is  represented  -which  itself  em- phasizes  how  much The  Beaver has  done and continues to do to encourage high quality  photography in the frontier re- gions of Canada. While many of the pages show the work of professionals whose  reputations  were  already  estab- lished elsewhere - Margaret Bourke- White of Life is  notable  among  them - there are also  many  amateur  photo- graphs which are in no way inferior, among them the work of well-known northern  travellers  such as L.  A. Lear- month, J. H. Webster and A. W. Ban- field. Photographs  which  have  stood the test of the years and which seem likely to hold  a permanent  place as northern documentaries  include  Brigdens’  “Plains Indian in native  dress”, F. Dalman’s “Manitoba  Trapper”,  Bob  Stewart’s  pic- tures of Eskimos  made  a  generation  ago, R.  N.  Hourde’s “portraits” of the vener- able  “Distributor”  and the extraord- inarily moving studies of water  birds  by the late Lorene Squire, to whom the book is fittingly dedicated. The reviewer was glad to see A. L. Learmonth’s  “Northwest  Passage,  Bellot Strait” once more, if only as a timely reminder that this route between west and east was familiar to traders long before its much publicized transit by naval  vessels  in the 1957 summer. Pageant of the  North is  auseful book to keep on hand for occasional study and reference (even though the reviewer  failed  to  locate  among its many wildlife views a representative shot of “an arctic seal” called for urgently by an enquiring sculptress). The book is also very suitable to send as a gift to friends at home or overseas,  particularly those  who  merit  something  characteris- tically Canadian. Long  may the happy  teamwork of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Clifford Wil- son, Brigdens Ltd. (who made the en- gravings), the printers and publishers continue  to  give  us  such  splendid,  bal- anced and wide ranging views of the northland. TREVOR LLOYD DAWN IN ARCTIC ALASKA. By DIAMOND JENNESS. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1957. 55/, x 8% inches; 222 pages;  numerous illustrations by GIACOMO  RAIMONDI; 6 sketch  maps. $5.50 in  Canada. The “dawn” of this title refers to a period of new  contact  with  people  and 184 REVIEWS 185 things of the world outside the Arctic and the beginning of acculturation among  Eskimos of the Beaufort  Sea coast.  The  book  presents  a  year, the first one, in Dr.  Jenness’s  work  among  Eski- mos. The  year  was 1913-14; the occasion, the Stefansson Arctic (or Stefansson- Anderson) Expedition. Because of separation  from their ship, several  members of the expedition,  in- cluding the author,  had  a  lean  and f i -  cult winter. But probably Dr. Jenness learned  more  and  gives  us  more of the daily  life of his  Eskimo  hosts as a  result of his great dependence on them. Dreary,  small,  and  monotonous as it is, still the winter  story of hunger  and  con- finement  is the  real contribution of the book, since it gives the “feel” of the trappers’  life  without  glamour or drama. This is realism without even a capital “R”. The  summer story (1914) has  another value: an account of the author’s ar- chaeological  work,  especially  on  Barter Island.  This  has  biographical  interest  for his  numerous  friends,  for  young  archae- ologists  learning the history of their field, and for inhabitants of the area. Those  today  manning the northern  bases and  radar  sites  probably  find it hard to imagine the life of the area or the ap- pearance of old sites  before  they  came along. The  book  contains  little  ethnography  in detailed  descriptions of techniques  and beliefs. It does have, however, a good picture of the patterns of mobility  forty years ago, both coastwise and  between inland and coast. If one wanted a base from  which to start an acculturation account of the area, this book would provide  several  good  building  blocks. Life  did  not  change so completely  or so fast, though, as the author suggests. His  assumption  and  misinformation re- garding  changes,  evidently  given  him  by others  after he ceased  work in Alaska, have led to the principal errors of the book. The  reviewer  had the interesting experience of visiting the book’s area while  reading it. On the basis of visits  to Wainwright,  Barrow  and  Barter  Island, September 1957, we  can  reassure  every- one that  the people of Point  Hope,  Wain- wright,  and  Barrow  have  continued whaling right to 1957, contrary to the statement  (page 127) that “whaling re- mains  a  mere  memory.”  On  information from Fr. Thomas  Cunningham, S.J., who has lived in recent years on Diomede Island  and  has  been  on the Soviet  side of Bering Strait since 1926, it can be said  also that visiting  and trade between Siberia  and  Alaska  did  not  cease in that year, as stated (page 157). Trade be- tween  Eskimos  on the two  sides of the Strait continued until 1948. These are of course  only  two errors in a book that otherwise seems accurate. Certainly  its  calm  style  is  reassuring. It consistently  eschews the dramatics  and self-praise of so many northern jour- nals.  Although  this  is  not  a  very  exciting story, we are glad that Dr.  Jenness  after so many years has  told it and  especially glad that  the winter  described  here  did not discourage him from continuing in what turned out to be an important career in arctic archaeology. MARGARET LANTIS BIRTHPLACE OF THE WINDS. By  TED BANK 11. New York:  Thomas Y .  Crowell 1957. 274 pages;  illus., plates,  maps, diagrams. $4.50. As the dust  cover  informs  us,  this  book is  “an  informal  account of scientific exploration among the islands of the Bering  Sea”.  As the book  itself  presents it, Mr. Bank’s  “scientific  exploration”  is a continuous series of excitement and disappointment, thrill, romance,  mys- tery, and  heroism,  recounted in the old stereotyped patterns of the travelogue to  remote  places  produced pour kpater le bourgeois. The  “scientific” in Mr. Bank’s  “exploration”  appears  to  consist in rummaging  ghostly burial places cursed  by the ancient  beliefs of the Aleuts,  scaling  dangerous  volcanos,  and plucking an assortment of odd plants along with oddments of esoteric infor- mation of all  descriptions.  These  activi- ties are illustrated  with  sketches of mummies,  photos of skulls,  plants, rugged  scenery,  and  people,  drawings of queer, unexplainable bone, stone, and wooden  objects.  Human  interest  is  add- ed  by the succession of hairbreadth escapes  and  aring  adventures  with nature, by the perennial assistant ex- ploding  ‘Godamighty’ at every  new 

Dawn in Arctic Alaska, by Diamond Jenness

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Dawn in Arctic Alaska, by Diamond Jenness

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