In the heroic age of Antarctic exploration—the first 15 or so years of this century (Hayes 1932)—scientific investigations took second place, at least in the public eye, to geographical exploration and its offshoot, the race to the South Pole. Nevertheless important geological discoveries were made and the basic framework of Antarctic geology was mapped out. This article describes briefly the geological work and the geologists of the expeditions that explored Victoria Land between 1900 and 1912, with a note on the significance of the geological specimens found with the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers in 1912.

South Georgia, at present governed as a Dependency of the Falkland Islands, has an interesting history of human activity extending back nearly two centuries. The sealers who visited the island in considerable numbers in the 18th and 19th centuries (Jones, 1973) almost certainly left gangs of men on the island for considerable periods, but not until the 20th century were permanent settlements established there. Published accounts of the initial stages of this colonisation (Matthews, 1931; Christie, 1951) contain various important errors, and give only the simplest outline of an interesting political problem. A more accurate account of some of these events has recently been published (Tonnessen and Johnsen, 1982). Material preserved in the Falkland Islands Government's (FIG) archives at Port Stanley has allowed a detailed account to be built up of this important period of South Georgia's history.

The name for the Polar Record Glacier was approved in February 1952. At that time, the glacier was reported to possess an ice tongue that flowed into Sandefjord Ice Bay. In autumn 2000, AVHRR images were examined to assess whether the Polar Record ice tongue was still extant. It was found that there is an ice feature currently about 15 miles in length at the end of the glacier, although its orientation has changed since it was first surveyed in 1947. A fissure indicates that the tongue has calved to form an iceberg that is probably grounded.

Over the last decade claims that an Arctic ‘cold rush’ is taking place have intensified. Proponents of the argument contend that the unprecedented effects of climate change plus strong global demand for the region's natural resources are creating the conditions for a future economic boom. In both of these respects, Greenland merits particular attention. Some recent predictions suggest great riches accruing to Greenland, on account of its abundance of oil, gas and mineral deposits; as a consequence, some further argue, Greenlandic independence from Denmark is assured. In response, this article contests these arguments. For now, the natural and mineral resource sector in Greenland is tiny, and thus it is still much too soon to know whether it will even deliver the dazzling economic outcome forecast – let alone whether or not this outcome will benefit Greenland. In addition, the question of Greenlandic independence does not simply boil down to economics, but also raises various social, political, legal and strategic issues which are not easily resolvable. Consequently, Greenland's independence from Denmark is not simply a matter of time, but remains very much an open question.

Following his return from participating in John Franklin's first overland expedition (1819–1822), Willard Wentzel, a clerk for the North West Company, produced a map of the Mackenzie River and a brief account of its geography, native peoples, and history and significance as it related to the North West Company. This map and the account, which is one of the few early descriptions of the Mackenzie River area, are held in the Royal Commonwealth Society Papers at the University of Cambridge. They have not previously been published.

Investigations into conditions in Arctic and Antarctic seas were carried out during the late 18th and 19th centuries by private as well as government-sponsored expeditions. While the French occupied themselves with exploration mainly within tropical and temperate waters, Britishinterests lay in the Arctic regions, where a possible route through to the Pacific might be found, and as the location for whaling and sealing operations. It was to the advantage of these industries to discover how deep the polar seas were, to determine the water temperature and quality, and to understand the tides and currents flowing round their shores. But for a long time scientists failed to grasp that the key to water quality and movement lay in elucidating thetemperature profile from surface to sea bed. The instruments available before 1874 were not capable of resolving this profile and it was not until the end of the 19th century that measurements were made of sufficient accuracy to enable the various water masses and their consequent movements to be calculated theoretically from intensive temperature studies. By this time initiative for such work had passed into the hands of Norwegian scientists and Britain was represented only as a member of the International Commission for Exploration of the Sea (ICES), established in 1902.

The following short account of this little-known voyage is mainly based on some letters from Messrs Enderby to the Admiralty, which are now in the Public Record Office (IN letters to Secretary, 1/4308).

Immediately on Biscoe's return from his Antarctic circumnavigation (January 1833) his employers, Messrs Enderby Bros., planned a voyage which should follow up his discoveries. On the previous voyage, however, the cutter Lively, Biscoe's consort, had been wrecked at the Falklands, and while the loss was partly covered by insurance it had been sufficiently heavy for her owners to look round for financial assistance in the new enterprise.

On 27 September 1919, having destroyed most of their military equipment to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Bolsheviks, the last of the allied troops involved in the ‘Intervention’ at Arkhangel'sk led by General Edmund Ironside were evacuated from the city by sea. The White forces of General Yevgeniy K. Miller were then left to face the Bolsheviks alone (Strakhovsky, 1971, p 229; Silverlight, 1970, p 256; Maclaren, 1976, p 121; Halliday, 1961, p 208). The outcome was inevitable and could only be a matter of time, but when the final collapse of the White regime in Arkhangel'sk did occur, it was accompanied by one of the most bizarre episodes in Arctic marine history.

The preceding article by Mr Seligman has broken the ground for a review of what is known about the nature of friction on sledge runners, which is so vital an element in polar travel.

Few aspects of Canada's Arctic sovereignty claims have been more misunderstood than the sector theory, which many writers believe originated with and was put forward on Canada's behalf (whether officially or unofficially) by explorer Joseph Elzéar Bernier. However, several Canadian government officials in the 1920s were both shrewd and accurate in their assessment of Bernier's pretensions. This note focuses on the views of civil servant Oswald Sterling Finnie, as recorded in previously unexamined government documents. In the years following Bernier's retirement from government service in 1925, the explorer embarked on a campaign to win the place in history he felt he deserved, only to be thwarted by Finnie and his colleagues. The note also clarifies the differences between Bernier's 1907 and 1909 sector claims and the official sector claim made in 1925.

This paper refers to some aspects of the theoretical anthropological debate on the perception of time and I shall argue, following Ingold (2000) that amongst the Sámi people time is understood as an unfolding of interrelated tasks, rather than as a linear succession of standardised and arbitrary units. I also argue that the Sámi perception of time is not opposed to the western perception, but rather entails a different approach to the significance of clock time. The results of my fieldwork, conducted among the Sámi people in Finnish Lapland, lend support to the idea that the basis for a people's shared understanding and subjective experience of time lies in the interaction of skilful agents in carrying out diverse but interrelated tasks. It is not sufficient to live in a place, to belong to a particular ethnic group or to be engaged in the same subsistence activity to perceive time in a certain fashion. No matter how much we change the combination of actors, the perception of time is generated in each case through situated activity within the landscape.

The 1978 Cambridge Spitsbergen Expedition was organized along similar lines to those of previous years by C. A. G. Pickton and was in the field from late June to mid-August. Expedition members were: W. B. Harland (leader), C. A. G. Pickton, I. J. Fairchild, P. F. Rawson, M. J. Hambrey and P. Waddams (geologists); T. H. Druitt, J. H. Barne and D. A. Waldron (geological assistants); R. Davies (engineer); N. Cox and J. Caner (boat captains).