Stephen Burrough's voyage on board Serchethrift to northern Russia and Novaya Zemlya in 1556 is a standard reference point in general surveys of polar exploration. Unfortunately, for centuries its route in Russian waters has been garbled, due to a too literal reading of the term ‘Cola River,’ used by Burrough as the name of the first harbour he sought in Russia. Where was Burrough's Cola River? Determining its location is not at all as simple as it seems. More than a hundred years ago a Russian historian maintained most emphatically that this was not the Kola River (Reka Kola), which empties at Kola town, not far from present-day Murmansk, but Kuloy River (Reka Kuloy) in the Bay of Mezen, on the eastern coast of the White Sea. This article examines this question, which is significant because where Cola River is placed on the map clearly has repercussions for how the information contained in Burrough's travel account should be interpreted.

The theorizing of a southern continent for more than two millennia before the discovery of Antarctica and its long representation in maps are phenomena unparalleled in the history of geography and are well known. However, the epistemological implications of the mapping of this non-existent place have received little consideration. After preliminary remarks about present-day remote imaging of Antarctica and limits to the completeness of all mapping and knowledge, the article discusses the representation of the southern Terra Incognita in examples of mediaeval and Renaissance maps. It is argued that filling in blank spaces both reflected a yearning for complete knowledge and provided an opportunity for non-geographical discourse that is missing in maps today.

This paper examines the development of Malaysia's position on the ‘Question of Antarctica’ and its relationship to the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). Malaysia's challenges to, and criticisms of, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties (ATCPs) are mapped from 1982 to 2004, indicating a shift from challenging the ATS to engagement with the ATCPs. The paper highlights how Malaysia's position on the ‘Question of Antarctica’ reflected a mix between domestic political concerns and its international and regional interests. The mix between domestic and international interests is reflected in the ongoing involvement of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, including his retirement in 2003, in shaping Malaysia's position, from initiating the challenge to the ATS in 1982 to recommending that Malaysia join the ATS in 2004. Mahathir's domestic agenda, most notably through Malaysia's ‘Vision 2020’ development program is identified as providing an impetus for change, increasing Malaysian scientific interest in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.

Northwest Greenland formerly supported a population of musk-ox (Ovibos moschatus). Radiocarbon dating of musk-ox remains collected on the terrain surface and from archaeological sites has yielded Late Holocene ages, indicating that the species was a late immigrant to this part of Greenland. Musk-ox arrived at a time when Greenland was uninhabited, and the species had at least several hundred years to expand and spread south, before the Late Dorset people arrived and began to hunt. The main reason that the species did not disperse south to West Greenland was probably because of the barrier presented by Melville Bugt, which was heavily glaciated in the Late Holocene. However, if there had been a longer period of time before hunting of the musk-ox occurred, there would have been an enhanced likelihood that chance dispersal south could have taken place.

The ship that the oceanographer Dr William Speirs Bruce used on the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 1902–04, was originally a sealer named Hekla, built in Norway in 1872. In 1889 the Norwegian skipper Ragnvald Knudsen explored the northeast coast of Greenland between latitudes 74° and 75°, and in 1891–92 the ship was used by the Danish naval officer, Lieutenant C. Ryder, to explore the inner recesses of Scoresby Sund, finally visiting Angmagssalik. In 1902, re-named Scotia and captained by Tam Robertson from Peterhead, she sailed to the Weddell Sea under the leadership of Bruce. The southern winter of 1903 was spent at Laurie Island in the South Orkney Islands, and in March–April 1904 the party discovered 150 miles of previously unknown coastline of the Antarctic continent, reaching a farthest south of 74°01′S, 22°00′W. An extensive programme of marine survey and biological research was carried out. Back in the UK, Bruce sold the ship, and she returned to sealing, based in Dundee until appointed to be the first international North Atlantic Ice Patrol ship after the tragedy of Titanic. The Great War caused her to become a freighter in the English Channel area until she caught fire and was burnt out on a sandbank in the Bristol Channel on 18 January 1916.

This paper is concerned with Aotearoa/New Zealand's changing relationship to Antarctica, and the Ross Dependency in particular. Through a consideration of post-colonial theory in the Ross Dependency, it is argued that a productive dialogue about the cultural politics of mainland Aotearoa/New Zealand can be opened up. After some reflections on the post-1945 political and cultural trajectory of the country, attention is given to the place of the Maori and their involvement in the polar continent and Southern Ocean. The adoption of Maori place-names on New Zealand maps of the Ross Dependency is considered further because it helps to illuminate the country's awkward and incomplete post-colonial transformation. Arguably, such an adoption of Maori place-names in Antarctica contributes to a vision of bicultural harmony. However, this is not a view shared by all observers. Developments affecting the crown agency Antarctica New Zealand, alongside recent heritage projects, are scrutinised further in order to consider how Maori–Pakeha relations influence and define contemporary understandings of New Zealand's presence in Antarctica. Finally, the paper briefly contemplates how a trans-Tasman dialogue with Australian scholars might enable further analysis into how geographically proximate settler colonies engage with Antarctica and their associated territorial claims to the continent and surrounding ocean.

Joseph Shackleton, a member of the same family as Sir Ernest Shackleton, visited Iceland with two friends in 1861. They travelled in Arcturus, a Danish vessel that ran a scheduled service in summer. They visited the two main ‘attractions,’ namely Thingvellir and the geysers. Shackleton's manuscript account of the trip indicates that tourism was developed by such an early date and that the infrastructure for it was in place and efficient. His account also provides interesting information concerning contemporary Iceland.

In late February/early March 1874, the members of Eduard Dallman's German ‘Grönland’ Expedition erected a commemorative plaque at Potter Cover, King George Island, South Shetland Islands. This historic monument was previously noted by a four-man party in 1949.

Gordon de Quetteville Robin died on 21 September 2004 at the age of 83. During his life he contributed significantly and innovatively to his own academic subject of glaciology and, persuaded of the high value of cooperation between national groups at an early age, promoted actively and effectively the cause of international collaboration in Antarctica. He raised the profile and contribution to polar research of the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, to a new peak during his influential directorship between 1958 and 1982.