Axel Ohlin

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Axel Ohlin
Participants in the Swedish Antarctic Expedition in October 1901 on board the Antarctic (from left to right): Carl Skottsberg , Otto Nordenskjöld, Karl Andersson, Carl Anton Larsen, Erik Ekelöf, Axel Ohlin, Gösta Bodman.

Axel Gabriel Ohlin (born July 31, 1867 on Visingsö ; † July 12, 1903 in Sävsjö ) was a Swedish zoologist and polar explorer .

Life

Axel Ohlin was born as the son of the forester Per Ohlin and his wife Hedwig Hjertstedt on the island of Visingsö in Lake Vättersee and grew up in the forester's house near Visingsborg Castle . He studied marine biology in Lund and received his doctorate there in 1890. In 1891 he came into contact with the Arctic for the first time when he was on a Norwegian whaler in the waters around Jan Mayen to do marine research.

Two years later he was entrusted with a search expedition for the missing Björling-Kallstenius expedition of 1892, whose ship was found stranded off the Carey Islands at the entrance to Smithsund in the summer of 1893 . Johan Alfred Björling had left a message on the island that bears his name today that he wanted to go to Clarence Head, the southeastern tip of Ellesmere Island , with three companions in the dinghy . Since then there has been no trace of the men. Ohlin went on board the Falcon , which on the one hand brought supplies for Robert Peary in the Inglefield Fjord , on the other hand visited the Carey Islands and searched the southeast coast of Ellesmere Island for traces of the missing. Ohlin found the last camp of the expedition on Björlingø and took some items that had been left behind. However, no traces of the missing were found on the coast of Ellesmere Island, which suggested that they never got there. Throughout the trip, Ohlin studied the arctic birds and mammals and examined the marine fauna .

In 1895 Otto Nordenskjöld Ohlin entrusted the management of the zoological work of his expedition to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego . Ohlin stayed in South America from mid-November 1895 to mid-April 1896 and mainly collected maritime species from the Strait of Magellan and adjacent waters. His collections were edited by Otto Staudinger , Wilhelm Michaelsen , Ernst Ehlers , David Bergendal (1855–1908), Einar Lönnberg and Oskar Carlgren, as well as by himself.

In 1898 Ohlin took part in an expedition to Bear Island , Spitzbergen and King Karl Land , which was led by Alfred Gabriel Nathorst . In addition to the scientific work, a lookout was also kept on the lookout for the balloon expedition of Salomon August Andrée , which had been missing since 1897 , but without success.

When Otto Nordenskjöld set off with the Antarctic for the Swedish Antarctic Expedition in 1901 , Ohlin was back on board as a zoologist. After the winter crew had been deposited on Snow Hill Island , the ship drove to the Falkland Islands under Captain Carl Anton Larsen . Here the seriously ill Ohlin had to leave the expedition and return to Sweden. He died on July 12, 1903 in the Sävsjö Lung Sanatorium .

Honors

Ohlin Island in the Antarctic Palmer Archipelago is named after Axel Ohlin .

Fonts (selection)

  • Några anteckningar om den nutida hvalfangsten i Norra Ishavet , 1894
  • På forskningsfärd efter Björling och Kallstenius. Strödda dagboksanteckningar från en färd till North Greenland sommaren 1894 , 1895
  • Bidrag till kännedomen om malakostrakfaunan i Baffin Bay och Smith Sound , 1895
  • Om tandutvecklingen hos Hyperoodon , 1896
  • Om antarktiska färder och Antarctica , 1899

literature

  • Axel Ohlin . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 2 : L – Z, including supplement . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 233 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Axel Ohlin's biography on the Sveriges Radio website , accessed on January 29, 2015
  2. ^ Henry G. Bryant: The Peary Auxiliary Expedition 1894 ( Memento from February 25, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Philadelphia 1895, p. 13 ff. (PDF; 53.1 MB).
  3. ↑ Otto Nordenskjöld: Overview of the zoological work during the Swedish expedition to the Magellan countries in: O. Nordenskjöld (Hrsg.): Scientific results of the Swedish expedition to the Nagellansländer 1895-1897 , Volume 2: Zoology . PA Norstedt, Stockholm, pp. 1-7, Textarchiv - Internet Archive .
personal data
SURNAME Ohlin, Axel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ohlin, Axel Gabriel (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish zoologist and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Visingsö
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1903
Place of death Sävsjö