Mountains of Madness: A scientist’s odyssey in Antarctica by John Long and
Tim Bowden, National Academic Press, $24.95, ISBN 0309070775
THERE are many reasons to be a geologist, but travelling the world at other
people’s expense must be one of the best. John Long is an Australian
palaeontologist who studies fossil fish. Twice he has pursued them as far as
Antarctica. His account of fieldwork in this extreme environment ranges from the
frightening to the mundane: blizzards, crevasses, research bases, Skidoos,
frostnip, drinking and constipation. It’s full of authentic details that any
expedition veteran will recognise.
Antarctica is huge: one-and-a-half…
