Since January 1949 the Arctic Team of the Fisheries Laboratory, Lowestoft, has been carrying out fishery research from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Research vessel Ernest Holt, an Arctic-type trawler specially built and fitted out so that hydrographic and biological observations can be made on the Arctic fishing grounds throughout the year. At the time of writing the naturalists in the Arctic Team consist of Michael Graham (Leader); G. C. Trout and R. J. H. Beverton (Population studies); J. Corlett and P. T. Marshall (Plankton); Arthur Lee and H. W. Hill (Hydrography); R. W. Blacker (Benthos). I wish to thank my colleagues for allowing me to draw freely on their work which is in preparation for publication, and for contributing the illustrations to this article.

In reading of Arctic exploration one is struck with the ill-fate which has often beset the dogs accompanying the explorers. Recently Baashuus-Jessen (1935) has carefully studied the accounts of many of these important expeditions and, according to this author, the lack of proper food containing right amounts of fat, minerals and vitamins was the principal cause of nervous diseases and malnutrition in the animals. In the Arctic and Antarctic regions, nevertheless, some most successful journeys have been accomplished with the aid of dogs. Unfortunately, it should be added that though the explorers reached their goals, it was often at the expense of their animals. Without doubt, also, when a stage is reached where dogs have to be sacrificed to feed the living, the latter are not in much better condition than those which were killed. Personally I should like to see or hear of an expedition, to one of the Poles or to some other place difficult of access, where all the dogs would return in good condition, to show the world what could be done with proper food and management. This article has been written for the Institute in the hope that the information about sledge-dogs may be of some assistance to those about to undertake expeditions in the Arctic regions. In this connection I should like to say that no other domesticated animal can withstand the hardships of the north better than the dog. He can follow man wherever he goes, and I have wondered why he is not more used, for instance, in mountaineering at the lower levels. The dog, being a native animal, winters well if he is properly fed, and should be at his best when the days begin to lengthen, which is just the time of year long journeys are undertaken. I will conclude by hoping that some of our young men will make a study of this matter: first of all by getting a thorough understanding of the mechanical laws involved in traction and harnessing; secondly, in working out balanced rations with the food available in the different countries where the dogs are to be driven, and also by making a study of hygiene and of preventive measures against disease and parasites; and lastly, by getting some actual practice in dog driving.

In 1949 a reassessment of the Imperial Russian Navy's Antarctic expedition of 1819–1821 was promulgated in the Soviet Union. The contention was that Russian seamen had made the first discovery of the mainland of Antarctica, two or three days before the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula was sighted by a British expedition, under William Smith and Edward Bransfield, sent to take formal possession of the South Shetland Islands. The new Soviet line apparently required that an important passage in a report which Captain Bellingshausen had sent from Australia in 1820 should, as far as possible, be overlooked or downplayed. Nineteenth century editions of the report and its covering letter are translated, the contemporary ice vocabulary in which they were phrased is explained, and the practice of discounting parts of them in the past and continuing to ignore those passages today is discussed.

In mid-1968, Atlantic Richfield Company announced an oil strike in northern Alaska that triggered off an exploration and development boom such as Alaska never had witnessed, either as a territory or as a state. The excitement still continues. Although the potential implications are still by no means clear, the effect on Alaska is bound to be great and lasting. In terms of persons involved, amount of capital expended, amount of work done, and importance of resources discovered, the current effort far exceeds any of the gold rushes of the early years of the century. This article attempts to weigh some of the implications of Alaska's current strike, to place them in some kind of perspective, and to predict some of the trends that may develop as Alaska struggles to become a major oil state.

A knowledge of the positions of the magnetic poles is important for the construction of magnetic charts of the polar areas. Charts giving the isogonals, or lines of equal declination, are needed for the purpose of air navigation over the polar regions, which is likely to become of increasing importance. The isogonals have a particularly complicated shape in the polar regions, because both the geographical pole and the magnetic pole are points of singularity, through which all the isogonals necessarily pass.

In 1903 Jack London (1876–1916) wrote The call of the wild. This deceptively complex adventure novel concealed the author's vision and critique of a ‘Southland’ society ensnared in a system of capitalism. To reveal the limits of capitalist constructions of knowledge and power, London took his readers from the civilised Southland of California to the frozen uncivilised ‘Northland’ of the Klondike. In this primitive Northland setting, the legacy of a Southland society that valued an individual according to economic mastery was to impede a successful response to London's exacting call of the wild. To investigate London's premise, this paper draws upon the insights of the philosopher Michel Foucault. Foucault argued that knowledge and power can be analysed in terms of region, domain, territory, and field, and his work described how institutions ‘inscribe themselves both on a material soil and within forms of discourse.’ He reasoned that ‘one is able to capture the process by which knowledge functions as a form of power and disseminates the effects of power’ through the critical apparatus of the ‘heterotopia.’ Unlike the idealised space of the Utopia, the heterotopia is a ‘real’ social and cultural space that represents, contests, or inverts other sites found within a culture. Foucault recognised the ‘ship’ as the heterotopia par excellence: ‘a floating piece of space…that exists by itself, that is closed in on itself.’ This paper argues that in London's novel the central heterotopia is the Northland sled.

The international community’s interest in the governance of Antarctica has long been recognised. Consideration of this interest has even been one of the pillars of the Antarctic Treaty System’s legitimacy. The Antarctic Treaty, for example, famously claims to serve “the interest of all mankind.” Yet, exactly how the international community is given a voice in Antarctic deliberations remains unclear. This contribution argues that – with the idea of direct United Nations involvement having been squarely rejected – stewardship could best describe the existing governance model as well as offer a normative framework to assess the system’s legitimacy.

Antarctica’s Pole of Inaccessibility (Southern Pole of Inaccessibility (SPI)) is the point on the Antarctic continent farthest from its edge. Existing literature exhibits disagreement over its location. Using two revisions of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research’s Antarctic Digital Database, we calculate modern-day positions for the SPI around 10 years apart, based on the position of the “outer” Antarctic coastline, i.e. its boundary with the ocean. These show that the position of the SPI in the year 2010 was around 83° 54’ S, 64° 53’ E, shifting on the order of 1 km per year as a result of changes of a similar magnitude in the Amery, Ronne-Filchner and Ross Ice Shelves. Excepting a position of the SPI calculated by British Antarctic Survey in 2005, to which it is very close, our newly calculated position differs by 150–900 km from others reported in the literature. We also consider the “inner” SPI, defined by the coastline with floating ice removed. The position of this SPI in 2010 is estimated as 83°37’ S, 53° 43’ E, differing significantly from other reported positions. Earlier cartographic data are probably not sufficiently accurate to allow its rate of change to be calculated meaningfully.

On 18 June 1928, Roald Amundsen and a team of five men (René Guilbaud, Leif Dietrichson, Albert Cavelier de Cuverville, Gilbert Brazy and Emile Valette) flew in a French Latham 47 prototype aeroplane from Tromsø, Norway, to aid in the rescue of survivors of the crashed airship Italia. The party disappeared nearly without trace into the Barents Sea. We shall examine Amundsen's last years, the decision to employ for an Arctic relief mission a prototype aeroplane which had not completed its flight tests, and the evidence that, in deciding to disregard warnings and fly this aeroplane unaccompanied over the Barents Sea, Amundsen took a significant risk that led to his death and those of his crew.

In his book Scott and Amundsen (1979) Roland Huntford described Captain Robert Falcon Scott R.N. as ‘not well thought of in the Service’ and ‘an obscure, rather dull torpedo lieutenant with mediocre prospects’. A myth has subsequently arisen that Scott was forced into Antarctic exploration as his only route to naval promotion. In reality, Scott was an extremely able officer held in high regard by his naval contemporaries; he was on course for promotion to flag rank (rear-admiral and above) had he not taken up polar exploration; and his primary motivation for polar work was financial support for his family. In addition to a chronological account of Scott's career, this article will present his Admirals’ reports in full.

Participatory methods have become essential for research with Indigenous Arctic peoples. To understand how researchers use such methods, we conducted a scoping review of participatory action research (PAR)—a classic qualitative methodology—with Inuit communities. Although other systematic reviews exist on participatory methodologies in the Arctic, our scoping review is the only one focusing only on the Inuit.

We reviewed 11 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2019 in peer-reviewed journals. Most of them had been conducted with Canadian Inuit. Although the authors came from a variety of disciplines, the studies were mostly about the health and well-being of Inuit communities. The authors did not use the same definition of PAR, but their definitions did share some key components: Inuit participation, Inuit engagement and a goal of social change. There were also a variety of methodologies of research and forms of Inuit participation, although the photovoice method was frequent.

Scoping reviews are most often used in the natural sciences. This one was a challenge because we were using it in the social sciences and because it concerned PAR, an approach with different definitions and uses. A remaining question is how to assess such a method, either by peers or by other stakeholders.

The Arctic region is rapidly changing as a result of climate alteration, political tensions and ambitions of the Arctic and non-Arctic states. Is the existing governance considered to be adequate for effective international security cooperation in the region? On the one hand, we look optimistic at the evolution of international relations in the areas of science and technology, conservation, search and rescue coordination, tourism, etc. On the other hand, there is a significantly increased militarisation of the Arctic region. The recent rise in military activities in the North has resulted in numerous regional deployments, patrols and other incidents in the maritime Arctic. In general, militarisation together with climate change are impacting scientific-commercial activities. Also, the absence of an adequate legal regime that may respond to climate change and interruption of civil activities by military exercises in a fast and effective way hampers international cooperation. This paper problematises various aspects of interaction between scientific-commercial activities and naval operations in the Arctic region.

The condylobasal length (CBL) of skulls from 999 sexually mature seal, sealion, and fur seals of 30 different species was measured. Additional data gathered from previous studies were also included to give an indication of variation within each species, particularly where there is a wide geographical dispersion. Where possible, means and ranges of CBL were given separately for each sex, so that the degree of sexual dimorphism could be assessed. Previous studies have indicated that CBL continues to increase after sexual maturity has been reached. In order to assess this, three species (Mirounga leonina, Otaria byronia (flavescens), and Halichoerus grypus) that contained individuals of known age were included in the study. Other craniometric characters are often expressed as a percentage of CBL when assessing taxonomic relationships. Some of these characters were reassessed using the new data.

A joint geological expedition from the Department of Geology, University of Cambridge, and the Geologisch-Palontologisches Institut der Universitt Hamburg worked in Svalbard from 27 June to 12 September and was based at the building Mexico in Ny-lesund. The expedition totalled 17 members, was organized from Cambridge by Ailsa B. Reynolds, and was led by W. B. Harland.