bo redo m of rhe Victory's crew as they face icebergs, disease, starvation , and the dark Arctic w inter. The tedium and misery are broken, however, with dange ro us overland voyages of scientifi c discovery and with th e peaceful and close relationship with the Inui t. Th ro ugh Edinger's portrayal of th e significant and often inco nsequential mo ments of the 1829- 1833 voyage, rhe reader is co nnected to the mo tley assortme nt of sailo rs and nomads. Edinger, while providing an accurate and clear ponrayal of the controversy surro unding Captain Ross, excites th e imagination of the reader, whether Arcti c novice o r polar historian. E LI ZABETH W HITFIELD
G reenville, No rth Carolina
The Silent Landscape: The Scientific Voyage of HMS Challenger, by Richard Co rfield (Jose ph H enry Press, Washingto n , D C, 2003, 285 pp., map, illus, deck plans, ISBN 0-3 09-08 904-2; $24 .95hc) The "S il ent Landscape" is the ocean's bottorn. The HMS Challenger, launche<l in 1858, was a 200-foo r, three-m as ted
corvette with an auxiliary steam engine. The book is the story of an English sciemific expedition that ci rcumnavigated the world covering 68,900 miles in almost fo ur years between 1872 and 1876. The Royal Society's missio n srarem em was straightforward- the Challenger was ro: investigate the physical conditio ns of the deep ocean, determine the chemi cal compos ition of seawa ter at va rious depths, determine physical and chemical co mposition of deep-sea deposits, and inves tigate distribution of organic life at different depths. In his research , eanh scientist and writer Richard Corfield waded th ro ugh fatho ms of official documents produ ced by rhe vessel's offi cers and expeditio n's "scientifics." In addition, he had the benefit of unofficial journals, one produced by a co mmon crewm ember, a steward 's assisran r. While The Silent Landscape could have better humani zed the event, the book does succeed in readably linking the Victorian expedition's extrao rdinary findin gs and efforts ro 2 1st century science and public issues. Mo re extensi ve use of reports
CRUISE ABOARD THE WWII LIBERTY SHIP JOHN W. BROW
and jo urnals might have more greatly humani zed rhe expedition. The Silent Landscape is science history. The book, however, will delight the reader seekin g the genesis of man y of today's eanh sciences and marine biology issues. The activities and findin gs of the Challenger are linked to calcite compensation, coral survival, global warming, plate tecto ni cs, and continental drift. Corfield identifies the "most tangible" legacy of the voyage as the ocean drilling program s of the late 20th century. A "less tangible,'' bur nevertheless equally impo rtant, expedi tion outcome relates to the q uestion of God and Science. Stares Co rfi eld , ''Although the Scientifics, officers, and bluejackets mi ght never have perceived it themselves ... they put God and the C hurch in their rightful place: arbiters of spiritual questions rhar can never be answered by the m ethods of science, while showing clearly that scientific questions are properl y the province of science." P ETER SORENSEN
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