The search for Sir John Franklin (1847–59) coincided with a growing interest in mesmerism and modern spiritualism in Britain. Several clairvoyants, claiming to ‘see’ Franklin's ships and crews in the Arctic, made statements about the status and location of the overdue expedition, and at least three mediums described communications with Franklin’s spirit. Although the Admiralty provided assistance to Dr Haddock, the mesmerist of Emma, the Bolton clairvoyant, they did not take any action on the basis of her statements, probably because the various accounts were contradictory and could not be verified, and because the Admiralty Lords were sceptical of paranormal phenomena. Lady Franklin, on the other hand, visited clairvoyants and altered the plans for her search expeditions under Forsyth and Kennedy on the basis of a revelation. Recently, an American medium has described more than two dozen conversations with the spirits of Sir John and Lady Franklin.

This article examines current economic practices of the Inuit of Nunavik and the consequences of these practices on social relations. In western societies, recourse to market and increasingly frequent use of money have been identified as major factors related to a decline in household production. These practices are also associated with a reduction of interpersonal dependency and with the emergence of instrumental rationality. In Nunavik, like in many Arctic regions, money and commodities represent an increasing portion of the economic resources of Inuit households. Household production also contributes substantially to their resources. An examination of the Inuit household budget shows a diversity of lifestyles supported by various economic activities and strategies that aim at satisfying material needs of family members. These strategies demonstrate that Inuit are economically rational and make use of monetary calculation. This rationality does not influence all economic behaviours, which are also motivated by traditional values and customary obligations. However, the emergence of diversity in lifestyles indicates the existence of a greater margin of self-determination for individuals.

When geographers recommended the exploration of the Antarctic regions at the close of the nineteenth century, Germany and Britain were eager to do their best. The promoters of Antarctic research, such as Georg von Neumayer (1826–1909) in Hamburg and Clements Markham (1830–1916) in London, could finally raise enough money to build national flagships for science. Despite unfavourable political circumstances, due to political rivalry between Germany and Great Britain, the leaders of the expeditions — Erich von Drygalski (1865–1949) and Robert Falcon Scott (1868–1912) — agreed to a scientific collaboration with regard to meteorological and magnetic measurements in Antarctica during 1901–1903, which later was extended until 1904. This paper reveals that favourable circumstances such as the International Geographical Congresses in London (1895) and Berlin (1899) played a major role in increasing scientific interest in and public support of Antarctic research, ultimately leading to international collaboration.

Although there is increasing recognition that traditional ecological knowledge can make important contributions to environmental and resource-management issues, there are also indications that its use in co-management committees has not been straightforward. Three main sets of challenges have been documented — differences in knowledge systems between western scientific and traditional ecological knowledge, the relatively powerful position of western science and scientists in comparison to traditional ecological knowledge and its users, and challenges in documenting and presenting traditional ecological knowledge. This paper reports the results of a study that surveyed members of co-management committees established in Nunavik, northern Quebec, pursuant to the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement to explore their perspectives on these issues. Three elements emerged from this study. They are the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of the views that committee members held about traditional ecological knowledge, the active role of the Inuit in attempting to shape how traditional ecological knowledge is used in decision-making, and the need for documentation of, and research funding for, the collection of traditional ecological knowledge.

This is the third in a series of biographies entitled ‘Children of the Golden Age,’ the purpose of which is to describe the background and contributions of significant living figures in polar research who began their scientific careers following World War II. Born on 17 January 1921 in Melbourne, Gordon de Quetteville Robin was educated at Wesley College and the University of Melbourne, graduating in physics with an MSc in 1942. Following submarine training in Scotland, he served in HMS Stygian in the Pacific. Soon after commencing as a research student in nuclear physics at Birmingham University, he joined the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey and was the first base commander at Signy Station in the South Orkney Islands (1947–48). In 1949–52 he was third-in-command on the Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition responsible for the successful oversnow seismic ice thickness campaign. In 1958, following a brief sojourn in Canberra, he was appointed the first full-time director of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge. During the next 24 years he developed SPRI into a world-class research institute. In the austral summer 1959–60 he undertook research operating from RRS John Biscoe in the Weddell Sea into the penetration of ocean waves into pack ice. During the early 1960s he stimulated development of radio echo sounding (RES) with Dr Stan Evans, which remains the standard technique for ice-thickness measurement. He undertook experimental fieldwork in Northwest Greenland in 1964 and airborne sounding in Canada in 1966. He was responsible for organising international collaborative programmes of airborne RES in Antarctica with American air support, leading fieldwork in 1967–68, 1969–70, and 1974–75. He was elected secretary of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research in 1958, serving for 12 years, and was president between 1970 and 1974. In 1975 he developed with Dr Terence Armstrong a postgraduate course in Polar Studies at SPRI. He retired as director in 1982 and continues his interests in glaciology as a senior research associate at SPRI.

The Twenty-fifth Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (XXV ATCM) adopted four Decisions, three Resolutions and one Measure. The texts of the Decisions, together with two appendices, and the Resolutions are reproduced here. The text of the Measure is also reproduced here but, due to limitations for space, the Annexes have been abbreviated and only the essential information has been given here. In addition, it has not been possible to give all the Annexes, even in abbreviated form, and those remaining will be published in a later Bulletin.