Western Tibet and the British Borderland

EUROPE

The Irish in Scotland (1798–1845). By James Edmund Handley. Demy 8vo. Pp. ix+313+xix. Cork : University Press, 1943. Price 10s. 6d.

British Woodland Trees. By H. L. Edlin. Demy 8vo. Pp. ix+182. 133 illustrations. London: B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1944. Price 12s. 6d.

Brenva. By T. Graham Brown. Demy 8vo. Pp. xv+227. 72 photographs. 4 maps. London : J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1944. Price 25s.

British Survey Handbooks. 2. Rumania. By C. Kormos. Fcap. 8vo. Pp. vii+122. Map. Cambridge : University Press, 1944. Price 3s.

British Survey Handbooks. 3. Greece. Compiled by Kathleen Gibberd. Fcap. 8vo. Pp. vii+106. Map. Cambridge : University Press, 1944. Price 3s.

The U.S.S.R. : An Economic and Social Survey. By S. P. Turin, D.Sc. (Econ.). Demy 8vo. Pp. xiii+219. 8 maps, 16 diagrams, 63 statistical tables. London : Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1944. Price 16s.

ASIA

China. By A. G. Wenley and John A. Pope. Med. 8vo. Pp. v+85. 25 plates. 7 sketch maps. 3 figs. Smithsonian Institution War Background Studies No. 20. Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution, 1944.

AUSTRALASIA

Mew Zealand: A Working Democracy. By Walter Nash. Demy 8vo. Pp. vii+290. Frontispiece. 1 map. London : J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1944. Price 8s. 6d.

GEOMORPHOLOGY

Volcanoes as Landscape Forms. By C. A. Cotton. Demy 8vo. Pp. 416. Frontispiece. 223 figs. Christchurch, N.Z., and London : Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd., 1944. Price 32s. 6d.

OCEANOGRAPHY

Pacific Ocean Handbook. By Eliot G. Mears. 7x4 inches. Pp. x+198. 58 figs. 7 maps. Stanford University, California : James Ladd Delkin, 1944. Price $2.00.

EDUCATIONAL

The British Isles : A School Certificate Geography. By S. J. B. Whybrow, B.Sc, F.R.G.S. Crown 8vo. Pp. x+196. 66 sketch maps. 20 photographs. London : J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1944. Price 3s.

GENERAL

International River and Canal Transport. By Brig.‐Gen. Sir Osborne Mance, K.B.E., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., assisted by J. E. Wheeler. Demy 8vo. Pp. viii+115. 2 maps. Issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. London : Oxford University Press, 1944. Price 10s. 6d.

Heresies and Humours. By Major C. S. Jarvis, C.M.G., O.B.E. Demy 8vo. Pp.176. Illustrated by R. A. Young. London : Country Life Ltd., 1943. Price 8s 6d.     

Pastures lost? A dental microwear study of ovicaprine diet and management in Norse Greenland

The management of ovicaprines by the Medieval Norse farmers in Greenland is explored using dental microwear analysis. Adult and juvenile ovicaprines from Norse contexts in Greenland are shown to exhibit microwear patterns very different to those in modern Greenlandic sheep; while modern sheep demonstrate microwear consistent with low levels of soil ingestion under extensive, low stocking-rate grazing regimes, Norse sheep/goat display striated microwear patterns indicative of high levels of soil ingestion and, potentially, overgrazing. This high abrasive grazing signature is present in the inland region of the Western Settlement from 1150 AD onwards, may be evident in the inland Eastern Settlement from an equally early date and is also detected during the later phases of occupation in the Western settlement (14th and 15th centuries AD). It is argued that these results provide further evidence that maladaptive grazing practices led to a decline in the viability of pastoral farming in Greenland, and, moreover, that overgrazing did not merely occur towards the end of the settlement as a consequence of the worsening climate of the ‘Little Ice Age’ but rather was present in both the Western and the Eastern Settlement from a relatively early date.