Review of Otto Fabricius and the seals of Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland: Bioscience 55, by Finn O. Kapel

Abstract

In this three part volume Finn Kapel presents us with 1) a brief biography of Fabricius, 2) a translation of his treatise on the seals of Greenland and, fi nally, 3) a refl ection on the contribution of Fabricius as a seal naturalist/scientist. I concur with Dr Kapel’s belief that the key paper is the second one. This work on Greenland’s pinnipeds has until now been available only in Danish and German and certainly deserves to be more widely read and acknowledged. However, the first and last chapters are also an interesting read and give a nice basis for evaluating the biological and ethnographic material presented in the volume’s middle section, although now and again they are redundant. The book contains an interesting and eclectic collection of black and white illustrations including portraits, historical photographs, and technical and biological drawings