IN view of the increased public interest in Spitsbergen on account of the revival of mining ctivity and the recent political settlement, Dr. R. N. Rudmose Brown's new book upon the country is particularly opportune. It is further welcome because it provides the only modern work in English dealing with Spitsbergen in its general aspects; for Sir Martin Conway's “No Man's Land” is an historical volume, narrating the discovery and the early history of whaling and hunting in the archipelago and the adjacent seas. The only other recent general works are those of Holmsen in the Norwegian, and of Cholnoky, curiously enough, in the Magyar language.