Snow Survey. This issue contains the first report on the Snow Survey of Great Britain since the war. Its authors pay tribute to the many observers who have assisted them in its compilation. On behalf of this Society the Editors wish to record their thanks to Messrs. E. L. Hawke and D. L. Champion for the immense amount of time they have devoted to organizing the survey. The work has involved the study of individual reports which cannot have numbered much less than one thousand.
Mountaineering Contributions. The Editors would welcome accounts from mountaineers or ski-mountaineers on any noteworthy snow or ice phenomena they may find.
The Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition of 1947 will have left Sydney before these Notes appear. Two land stations are to be set up for meteorological and other research, one at Macquarie Island, 800 miles south-west of Hobart, and the other at Heard Island, which lies between Australia and South Africa. Dr. Fritz Loewe, a member of this Society, is in the Wyatt Earp, whose main purpose is to find a site for a permanent Antarctic research station. Dr. Loewe has also prepared a small glaciological programme for the surveyor of the Heard Island party.
Snow Accumulation On The Claridenfirn. Herr Walter Kuhn of the Swiss Meteorological Office, Zürich, is taking over the detailed observations which have been made for so many years by Dr. R. Streiff-Becker. Arrangements have also been made to take over work of a similar nature carried out by Dr. R. Billwiller on the Silvretta Glacier and elsewhere. What has thus been private research has now become a matter of official routine, and it is satisfactory to know that the continuity of these very valuable records is thus assured. Dr. Billwiller and Dr. Streiff-Becker will continue to keep in touch with the work.
The British Mountaineering Council now publishes an attractive quarterly bulletin. It is likely to contain articles of interest to glaciologists, especially where glacier research necessitates the use of climbing equipment. Information about the bulletin may be obtained from the Editor, 26 Beaufort Gardens, London, S.W.3.
Aerial Photographs. Prints of vertical photographs of the greater part of Britain on a scale of about 1:10,000 can be obtained at a charge of 5d. each from the Air Ministry (S.6), London, S.W.I. The prints are about 9 in. square. Applications should state the exact latitude and longitude or grid references from the Ordnance Survey one-inch G.S.G.S. 3907 map series. These photographs should be of value in studying the glaciation of this country.
Oxford University Exploration Club. The Polar Record, Vol. 4, No. 32, 1946, pp. 418–20 publishes an article on the revival of this Club. In 1947 the Club sent two expeditions into the field. In Jan Mayen studies were made of snow-patch erosion. ‘l’he retreat of the South Glacier of the Beerenberg was observed. A survey from the sea showed retreat and change of track of some of the remaining glaciers. In Iceland a party spent four weeks on one of the south-western outlet glaciers of Vatnajökull. Ablation and crystal forms were studied. The mode of occurrence of layers of volcanic ash in the ablation area was related to the 1947 eruption of Hekla.
Jungfraujoch Research Institute. The Annual Report for 1946 states that during the year the number of research workers was 134, 11 being foreigners. During the winter period (1945–6) the snow precipitation was barely half the normal.
Prevention Of Freezing. Weather (Vol. 2, No. 8, 1947, p. 242) mentions two anti-freezing devices. One, for harbours, consists of long lines of perforated pipes laid under water through which air is pumped; as the bubbles rise the resulting turbulence prevents freezing. The second device is that of dropping lamp-black on ice; the heat absorbed melts the ice. The former invention is new.
Don Munday, a well-known mountaineer and ski-mountaineer, has been appointed Chairman of the Glacier Committee of the Alpine Club of Canada.
R. Haefeli, whose work on the mechanics of snow is well known to every student of glaciology, has been appointed Assistant Professor of Soil and Snow Mechanics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich.
F. E. Matthes has received the Honorary Degree of LL.D. from the University of California in recognition of his many valuable contributions to glacial geomorphology and glaciology. Mr. Matthes has now retired from the U.S. Geological Survey and has settled in California.
