Montagne di Groenlandia, by Mario Fantin. Bologna: Tamari Editori, 1969. 374 pages, 280 photographs, 39 sketches and maps.

Lovers of the Arctic mountain world will be happy to see this volume, the first actual book on the mountains of Greenland. The text is in Italian, but anybody more or less familiar with some Italian mountaineering terms will have no trouble in following the development of the climbing history in this great island. The illustrations are so good and numerous, and the maps so usefully descriptive, that for these alone the book has a purpose.

The work is organized into three large bodies. The first introduces, simply but precisely, the Arctic island, not only in its physical aspects, but also with much other interesting information, such as its political administration and description of its native population. Part II deals extensively with the exploration of the mountains of Greenland up to and including 1968. Part III is the richer body of the text, with some 260 pages of writings by Italian and foreign explorers and mountaineers, translated from four languages. The work closes with a Greenland Eskimo vocabulary and grammar summary.

Mario Fantin is at present working on two other giant volumes like this one, on the mountains of the Sahara desert and of South America. Since accuracy of information and the abundance and high quality of maps and illustrations are standard in his books, we can only wish him every success in these two projects.

Evelio Echevarría