William Scoresby: Arctic Scientist

xii, 253 pp. 8vo. A biography of the Arctic explorer and scientist who also in his youth was part of the Greenland whale fisher. Gleaned largely from the unpublished Scoresby Papers held by the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society. The papers include: log books of Arctic voyages; detailed notes of scientific experiments (especially the pioneer work in the study of magnetism, which appeared in his 1819 paper On the Anomaly in the Variation of the Magnetic Needle); lengthy notes on ecclesiastical affairs and social conditions of a northern industrial town (Bradford) during the period of the 'hungry forties'; extensive notes and observations made during travels in the United Kingdom, France, and the United States; and many letters written to him by distinguished scientific contemporaries.