American Expedition Research Articles

Per Schei (1875-1905)

Per Schei, Norwegian geologist and explorer, died a young man. From 1898 to 1902, as a member of Captain Otto Sverdrup's second expedition in the Fram, Schei made his mark on the geological understanding of a vast region of the eastern Canadian High Arctic. Schei died before he could write a detailed report for publication, but by the time of his death, his status as a talented scientist and outstanding expedition man was established. ... In collaboration with Nansen, Sverdrup had decided to explore northernmost Greenland, and possibly to circumnavigate the subcontinent. Using the so-called Smith Sound route, Sverdrup was to direct Fram up the narrow channels separating Greenland and Ellesmere Island and winter in Greenland as far north as possible. These channels, now known as Nares Strait, had been explored by British and American expeditions since the 1850s. Sledge parties from Fram were to delimit the northern part of Greenland and to reach as far south down the east coast as possible. ... However, the Norwegian thrust north in the summer of 1898 was stopped by unfavourable ice conditions in Kane Basin. ... Another attempt the following summer to negotiate Kane Basin was thwarted by ice, and following this Sverdrup sailed Fram southward and westward into Jones Sound to spend the next three winters in southern Ellesmere Island. This was a fortunate decision: it led to the discovery and charting of "New Land" west of Ellesmere Island. Up north, it was left to Peary to prove the insularity of Greenland, in 1900. ... Schei took to expedition life quickly but not without mishap. After an episode of frostbite during early sledging on Bache Peninsula, which necessitated amputation of several toes on each foot, Schei developed into one of the most skillful dogsledge handlers and hunters on the expedition. His courage and dedication could not be overwhelmed by such small disabilities as a stiff leg, lost toes, and short-sightedness. ... Sverdrup's well-organized and coordinated team work produced results unsurpassed in arctic exploration; the group of islands now named the Sverdrup Islands - Axel Heiberg, Ellef and Amund Ringes, King Christian, and smaller islands - were discovered and mapped, and the entire western coast of Ellesmere Island and much of northern Devon Island were charted. Schei participated in some of the longest and most arduous sledge journeys, for example a trip with Sverdrup, during the final sledging campaign of 1902, northward up Nansen Sound to reach the Arctic Ocean and the northwestern tip of Ellesmere Island. ... The geographic and scientific advances achieved by Sverdrup's expedition rank it as one of the most successful in the history of arctic exploration, and Schei returned with a rich geological and paleontological collection from a hitherto unknown region. ... Schei's preliminary accounts appeared in 1903 in several languages, and these papers, although only a few pages each, were regarded by his contemporaries as forming some of the most important contributions ever made to arctic geology. Aware of the mammoth task of dealing with the extensive collection, Schei induced a number of specialists in Europe to identify and systematically describe the fossil assemblages. Only one treatise appeared in Schei's lifetime, but by 1917 ten geological reports had been completed, and Professor Olav Holtedahl concluded the four-volume work with a summary report based on Schei's diaries. One can only wonder how much greater Schei's contribution to arctic geology would have been had he lived. Professor W.C. Brogger noted Schei's decline in health early in 1905. ... Schei died of dropsy, a result of kidney malfunction that was thought at the time to be related to the four strenuous years in the far North. ... Schei can be credited with making the most impressive contribution by a single person to the geological understanding of the Arctic Islands prior to the advent of aircraft.

Cyrene Papers: The First Report. The Documents

AbstractOver the course of the last nine years, a large number of documents have come to light that chronicle more fully American interest in Cyrenaica in the 1880s and in the first two decades of this century. The documents mainly pertain to the 1910–1911 archaeological excavation of Cyrene by Richard Norton on behalf of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Archaeological Institute of America, during the course of which Herbert Fletcher DeCou, staff epigrapher, was fatally shot. But the material also refers to hitherto unnoticed American visits to Cyrenaica for archaeological purposes in 1883 and 1887, as well as the first official American expedition in the spring of 1909. While some of these papers are already well known and also have been the source of several studies regarding the murder of DeCou, most of the material has remained largely unexplored by scholars interested in Cyrenaica. For this reason they are presented here with the expectation that future articles on specific aspects of the Cyrene papers will be forthcoming shortly.

The Quest for a Tropical Paradise: Palm Tree as Fact and Symbol in Latin American Landscape Imagery, 1850–1875

Heart of the Andes (Fig. 1), completed and exhibited by Frederic Church in 1859, became the touchstone of the North American pictorial consciousness of Spanish America in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. On a five-by-ten-foot canvas Church painted the great peaks of the Andes looming above a foreground of rich, dense vegetation, crashing waterfalls, and penitent natives by a roadside shrine. The picture carried the authority of the artist's extensive South American expeditions of 1853 and 1857, during which he had sketched the varied scenery of Colombia and Ecuador. Viewers delighted in the details of mountains and vegetation he had transferred to canvas. Beyond the reportage of geological and botanical facts, however, the painting was celebrated by the public because it gave visual form to their ideal of tropical America: it represented the long-lost Garden of Eden, a nascent world left untouched since the Creation.

Soviet-American Co-Operation in Arctic Research - USSR/USA Bering Sea Experiment. Proceedings of the final symposium on the results of the joint Soviet American Expedition, Leningrad May 12–17 1974. K. Ya. Kondrat'ev (editor in chief). 1982. Translated from Russian by P. Datta. Balkema Rotterdam. 316 p, illustrated, hard cover. ISBN 90 6191 403 5. US$20.00, £11.00.

Soviet-American Co-Operation in Arctic Research - USSR/USA Bering Sea Experiment. Proceedings of the final symposium on the results of the joint Soviet American Expedition, Leningrad May 12–17 1974. K. Ya. Kondrat'ev (editor in chief). 1982. Translated from Russian by P. Datta. Balkema Rotterdam. 316 p, illustrated, hard cover. ISBN 90 6191 403 5. US$20.00, £11.00. - Volume 22 Issue 136

Geographical Aspects of the First International Polar Year, 1882–1883

marks the centennial of a milestone event in the history of scientific research in the polar regions, the First International Polar Year. A total of 14 stations was established in the polar regions by 12 different nations, along with a number of subsidiary stations. Focusing primarily on meteorology, geomagnetism, and auroral studies, scientists at these stations car- ried out a standardized, synchronized program of observations for a full calendar year. In terms of the geographical spinoff from the project, several of the expeditions made notable contri- butions in the area of exploration and mapping, particularly the American expedition to Elles- mere Island and the French expedition to Cab0 de Hornos (Cape Horn). The meteorological program naturally produced a wealth of raw data, which are now of great value as a basis for comparisons. Although geomorphology was not part of the official program, several of the scientists made very useful observations, particularly in the area of periglacial forms and pro- cesses. Concerning the marine environment the Dutch expedition, whose ship was adrift in the ice of the Kara Sea for the entire year, contributed very valuable observations on the nature and behavior of sea ice. Its oceanographic contribution was also extremely significant, as was that of the French expedition to Cab0 de Hornos. Scientists from several of the expeditions also made extensive and valuable pioneer observations of the indigenous peoples in their re- spective areas. Worthy of particular mention here are studies of the Eskimo of the North Slope by the American expedition to Point Barrow, of the Inuit of Cumberland Sound by a scientist with the German expedition to Baffin Island, and of the Yahgan Indians of Tierra del Fuego by the French expedition to Cab0 de Hornos.

A Prehistoric Source of the Nile

concerning the Nile valley has continued unabated up to the present, and the range of disciplines contributing to this knowledge has diversified. Geomorphological investigations of the evidence for environmental changes have often been made in association with archaeological work, for example, studies in Nubia by Butzer and Hansen (1968) and Wendorf and Schild (1976), and work in the Central Sudan and Blue Nile valley by Arkell and Ucko (1965), Adamson et al. (1974), and Williams and Clark (1976). Recent major works concerning the history of the Nile include those by Rzoska (1976) and Williams and Faure (1980). The basin of Lake Turkana, formerly Lake Rudolf, has been the scene of much archaeological and other scientific investigation in recent years. This is the result mainly of the discovery of early hominid remains in the lower Omo valley, particularly by French and American expeditions of the late 1960s, and discoveries on the east shore of the lake by Richard Leakey, the results of which are discussed by Coppens et al. (1976). As a result of their work, we have an unusually detailed record of environmental changes in the Turkana basin over the last two to three million years, especially for the northern and eastern margins of the lake. It is against this background of interest and research in the Turkana basin that the British Institute in Eastern Africa has been conducting archaeological exploration in the adjacent areas of the Southern Sudan since 1978. Early in 1980, as part of the commemoration of its 150th Anniversary, the Royal Geographical Society, jointly with the British Institute, sponsored an expedition to the area north-west of Lake Turkana. As members of this expedition, our project was to investigate evidence for changes in the level of Lake Turkana, which resulted from climatic changes, and to explore an ancient overflow channel which lies in the south-east corner of the Sudan. The results of our work are outlined here. Shortly before the expedition left for Africa, an important paper dealing with the history of Lake Turkana was published by Karl Butzer (1980), outlining fluctuations in the lake level during the Holocene. These fluctuations have been reconstructed on the basis of radiocarbon dates for raised beach features. There are 67 dates available for Turkana from sites in all parts of the basin. Figure 1 shows a lake level fluctuation curve based on radiocarbon and historical dates. Using 21 dates on shells from lacustrine deposits in the lower Omo valley, Butzer (1971) suggested that from its present level of

Antarctic meteorites: Samples of the solar system

The study of extraterrestrial materials by geochemists and geophysicists has been focused on a relatively small number of meteorites since the late fifteenth century. Many of the specimens studied through the years had been weathered or otherwise contaminated at the time they were collected on the ground. It has been especially significant, therefore, that since 1969, when Japanese scientists first reported discovery of meteorites protected within the ice flows in Antarctica, nearly 3 times the total number of specimens that existed at that time have been recovered. Expeditions from Japan, and more recently from the United States, have now recovered a total of 6000 new specimens from Antarctica, stimulating many new areas of study for the solar system sciences. Of these, more than 1000 specimens were collected by the American expeditions in only three field seasons. Already several unique meteorite varieties have been identified, the rare Shergotty‐type being a good example.

The Arctic Adventures of the <i>Thetis</i>

The Thetis , one of most famous Arctic ships was built as a whaler in Scotland in 1881, and served with distinction in the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, and the U.S. Coast Guard on many an Arctic voyage, before ending her days as a Canadian sealer in 1950. Her sixty-nine years of travels took her from the polar wastes of Greenland to the lush tropics of Hawaii, and from the barren tundra of Siberia back to the frigid waters of Newfoundland. ... The launching of the Thetis coincided with a flurry of international interest in the Arctic. On 3 March 1881, the United States contributed to it by mounting an expedition to Lady Franklin Bay on the northeastern coast of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Its ostensible purpose was to participate in the International Polar Year, but its leader ... harboured secret longings to be the one to push the farthest north .... Both of these goals were realized, but mishaps plagued this American expedition. The worst of them, since it doomed the members to deprivation and eventual starvation, was the sinking of the relief ship, the steam whaler Proteus on 23 July 1883, and the sailing away of her escort, the U.S.S. Yantic , without caching any provisions. ...

Effects of High Altitude on the Eyes

ABSTRACT The current issue of Archives of Ophthalmology publishes a trio of articles that deal with the effects of high altitude on the ocular system and brain. All three reports emphasize the prevalence of high-altitude retinal hemorrhages that disappear after return to low altitudes.Rennie and Morissey (93:395-400, 1975) had the opportunity to study the American expedition to Dhaulagiri (8,167 meters [26,795 ft]), a mountain in the Central Himalayas, the sixth highest mountain in the world and the highest ever climbed without the use of supplemental oxygen.The expedition included 15 experienced American climbers, all of whom were physically fit, and five Nepali Sherpas. Retinal photographs had been taken at sea level before the start of the climb and were repeated at high altitude after the climbers had undertaken quite strenuous exertion. All of the American climbers manifested ocular changes including vascular engorgement and tortuosity, plus retinal hemorrhages in five instances.

Splinter Hemorrhages at High Altitude

To the Editor.— On the recent American Expedition to Dhaulagiri, Nepal, (8,167 meters [26,795 feet]), the sixth highest mountain in the world, I developed numerous splinter hemorrhages in my fingernails. They appeared spontaneously during a restful evening when I was at base camp (5,880 meters [19,300 feet]), and the next morning I counted 46, of which 11 were beneath each thumbnail. The hemorrhages were thin, red, longitudinal streaks between 0.5 and 4 mm long, arranged near the distal part of the nail bed in a corona (Fig 1). As they grew out, they could be seen to lie in the soft, thin layer peeling off the undersurface of the nail. I had spent the previous five weeks in good health, transporting loads of 18 to 27 kg (40 to 60 lbs) from 760 meters (2,500 feet) to base camp, where I had been living for six days. The previous day

The Field Recording of Ceramic Data

AbstractThis article is a description of the criteria, methods, and techniques used by the Joint Expedition to Tell el-Hesi in the excavation, recording, and publication of ceramic materials. It is offered in the hope of stimulating conversation toward standardized criteria and processes for gathering ceramic data.The Joint Expedition to Tell el-Hesi was begun in 1970 as a ten-year project seeking to integrate new methods of analysis and scientific specialization with advanced stratigraphic techniques to reconstruct in as much detail as possible a description of the successive population groups which occupied this 37 acre mound. To this end the Joint Expedition was the first American expedition in Israel to integrate a full staff of specialists in botany, ceramic manufacture, geology and lithology into a large scale excavation.Three seasons of field excavation have been completed thus far (1970, 1971, and 1973) with two sessions of excavation planned for the summer of 1975. During these three seasons more...

Muscle Proteins of the CoelacanthLatimeria ChalumnaeSmith

Although the anatomy of the coelacanth muscles has been examined very thoroughly, their protein composition has, until recently, not been investigated. Thanks, however, to the 1972 British–French–American expedition to the Comores, frozen material has been made available and some results on myoglobin and four glycolytic enzymes have already been published. We have carried out a comparison of the sarcoplasmic proteins of red and white muscle by starch-gel electrophoresis. The ninhydrin-positive dialysable constituents and the myofibrillar proteins of white muscle have also been examined.A few puzzling results obtained with the white muscle extracts have been related to the occurrence of o.1 M ammonia, due presumably to the splitting of urea by a bacterial urease, and to an alteration of the active thiol groups of GAPDH and PK. If due account is taken of these unusual post-mortem changes, the extractability of the proteins and their properties are strikingly similar to those of teleosteans. The comparison of the sarcoplasmic proteins of white and red muscle by starch-gel electrophoresis revealed also that the differentiation observed in the coelacanth was similar to that occurring in the carp. A study of the low-molecular-weight proteins, or parvalbumins, of white muscle and of the myofibrillar proteins also shows the expected differences between the two muscle types.The only abnormal features observed in this study were the high concentration of parvalbumins, 1.5–2 times that found in other species examined, and the occurrence of an unusual globulin fraction which was easily extracted at ionic strength 0.5 and insoluble at ionic strength 0.35 and neutral pH.

Visual pigment of the coelacanth.

DURING the Franco–British–American expedition to the Comoro Islands (January 1–March 28, 1972), two coelacanths were taken by native fishermen. This report of the visual pigment is based on measurements made on a quarter of one retina of the second fish, an immature female, 0.86 m long1.

Observations on a Living Coelacanth

DURING the recent Franco–British–American expedition to the Comoro Islands at the north end of the Mozambique channel we had the opportunity to observe a living coelacanth. The fish, a small specimen 85 cm in length, was caught by a native fisherman at Iconi, Grande Comore, at 0200 on March 22, 1972. It was caught from a pirogue by hand line, using a piece of tuna as bait. The fish was transferred by the fishermen to a cylindrical cage approximately 1.5 m diameter by 2 m length which had been built at Iconi during a previous Canadian expedition.

Petitions From the Mamlūk Period (Notes on The Mamlūk Documents From Sinai)

The monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai possesses a large collection of odocuments concerning its own affairs and dating from the Fāṭimid, Ayyūbid, Mamlūk, and Ottoman periods. They were used for historical purposes as early as the seventeenth century by certain writers belonging to the monastery, but, if exception be made for the pioneer (but limited) work done by B. Moritz in the early years of this century, they remained unexploited by modern scholars. The American expedition of 1950, which has microfilmed about one-half of the library's manuscripts in various languages, brought back microfilms of the entire collection of Arabic and Turkish documents, thus making a thorough study of them possible for the first time. There is no need to specify the earlier bibliography of the Sinai documents, since readers of this Bulletin can obtain the necessary information from an article of mine published in an earlier volume.

Review: The Palliser Expedition: An Account of John Palliser's British North American Expedition, 1857-1860, by Irene M. Spry

Review: <i>The Palliser Expedition: An Account of John Palliser's British North American Expedition, 1857-1860</i>, by Irene M. Spry

American Expedition to New Guinea

American Expedition to New Guinea

The American Expedition to Hebron, 1964

The first season of stratigraphic archaeological exploration at El-Khalil (Hebron), Jordan, was undertaken between July and September, 1964, by the American Expedition to Hebron under the direction of Philip C. Hammond of Princeton Theological Seminary. Five educational institutions, three sponsors, and several private donors supported the project.' Most staff members, including area and site supervisors, were from the supporting institutions. Modern Hebron, located about twenty miles south of Jerusalem in the hill country at an altitude of some 2,600 feet, spreads up the eastern hillside from the valley along which the main road runs. Surrounding the city are lush vineyards, orchards, and olive groves, all watered by more than two dozen springs, several pools, and an annual rainfall of eight to ten inches. At the center is a famous mosque said to be built over the tomb of the patriarchs. That the sanctity of this site might be preserved, excavation was prohibited within one kilometer of the Haram.

The Palliser Expedition: An Account of John Palliser's British North American Expedition, 1857-1860

The Palliser Expedition: An Account of John Palliser's British North American Expedition, 1857-1860

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:The Palliser Expedition: An Account of John Palliser's British North American Expedition, 1857–60, by Irene M. SpryStatistical Methods and the Geographer, by S. GregoryLand, People and Economy in Malaya, by Ooi Jin‐BeeGeneral Geography, Part II: General Climate‐Geography, by dr. Joachim Blüthgen