The data used by Dr Frederick A. Cook in support of his claim to have reached the North Pole on 21 April 1908 are reinterpreted to support a hypothesis that Cook did not reach the Pole, that his journey towards the Pole lasted only one week, and thathe subsequently discovered and visited Meighen Island. This reconstruction explains how Dr Cook could have made observations of ice conditions and drift, and of an ice island, without having travelled far out on the Arctic Ocean. A possible reason for his failure to announce discovery of Meighen Island is also offered.

Five phases of international involvement in the Arctic are identified. The importance of analyzing internationalization development as a continuous process, instead of as separate periods replacing each other, is set into focus. Core problems of attaining autonomy in the Arctic are identified and related to southern-based strategies. Sustainable development, here analyzed, requires an identity to be developed among people as well as an integrated economy. Lack of identity and persistence of a non-integrated economy are often characteristic of Arctic areas. Greenland's development, analyzed within this theoretical framework. is hampered by a non-integrated economy, which must be changed soon if sustainable development is to be realized by the end of the century.

Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933), born in Greenland of Danish-Inuit stock, spent his childhood in Greenland. After schooling in Denmark he returned to Greenland for expeditions to the Inuit of the northeast, establishing by his late twenties a reputation as explorer and ethnographer. He undertook seven major expeditions to the Arctic, collecting ethnographic, archaeological, meteorological, geological, zoological and botanic data. His longest and best-known journey was the Fifth Thule Expedition, in which he travelled by dog sledge across Arctic America from Danish Island in the east to Nome, Alaska. His extensive record of the culture of Inuit groups met on his journeys remains one of the most valuable collections of Inuit folklore in existence.

The Government of Canada began supplying housing for some of its Eskimo people in the Northwest Territories in 1956. At this date the majority of Eskimos still followed their traditional nomadic way of life and lived in igloos or snow houses during winter, and in skin or canvas tents during summer. Since 1956, the tendency of Eskimo families to settle in the vicinity of trading posts, church missions, and newly established federal schools has increased, and the problem of providing permanent accommodation for them has been aggravated. At first the new townsmen improvised shelters from a combination of tents, packing cases, and scraps of metal, tar paper and lumber. When these inadequate dwellings were used as permanent residences, grave social and public health problems resulted from overcrowding.

In the summer of 2014 a major search was mounted in the Canadian Arctic for H.M.S. Erebus and Terror, the ships of Sir John Franklin's expedition, the aim of which was to make a transit of the northwest passage. Beset in the ice to the northwest of King William Island in the summer of 1846, they were abandoned there by the 105 surviving members of their crews in the summer of 1848. The officers and men hoped to walk south to the mouth of the Back River, presumably to ascend that river in the hope of reaching the nearest Hudson's Bay Company's post at Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake. None of them survived. The 2014 expedition, the Victoria Strait Expedition, mounted by a consortium which included Parks Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard, the Canadian Navy, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the Arctic Research Foundation, and One Ocean Adventure, had four ships at its disposal including the Canadian Coast Guard's icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Captain Bill Noon) and the Navy's HMCS Kingston.

Prior to World War II, little contact was made with the Eskimo of northern Canada, other than by early explorers, missionaries, Hudson Bay traders and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. With the war, a new importance was attached to the Canadian Arctic, and it became a strategic area. Men and equipment moved in, airstrips were constructed, large buildings were erected to house the men and machines, and almost overnight the twentieth century had arrived.

In part 1 of this article (Polar Record, Vol 20, No 124, January 1980, p 3–17) we examined the troubled course of relations between captains Horatio T. Austin and William Penny during the early stages of their expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin in 1850–51. In this second part, we shall examine the climax of their uneasy cooperation, namely a prolonged dispute which took place throughout the course of 11 August 1851; then we shall look at the consequences of this dispute after their return home to Britain, including the setting up of the Arctic Committee to resolve the differences between them, and the controversial aftermath of the committee's inquiry.

With the passing of Tom Crean, who died in August 1938, there goes another of a fast dwindling band of stalwarts, the naval Petty Officers of the Scott expeditions to the Antarctic.

When Captain Scott was selected to take command of the Discovery on the National Antarctic Expedition of 1901–4, he followed the example of the 1875 expedition under Nares and took with him an almost entirely naval personnel. Amongst these was a tall Irish A.B., Thomas Crean, who even then was celebrated amongst his fellows for a merry tongue and a facility for getting into tight places. He accompanied Lieut. Barne on his journey over the Barrier and fell into more crevasses than any other member of the party. He also went through some rotten ice just before the relief of the Discovery, and would certainly have been drowned had he not kept his head and stayed calmly in the mess of brash-ice until help and a rope were brought.

The commercial nuclear industry is considering the Northern Sea Route (NSR) as an alternative transit route for shipments of radioactive material between Europe and Japan, and as an import$sol;export route for shipments into and out of Russia. Technologically, the NSR is a practicable route, and factors that currently make it uneconomical for most commercial cargoes do not generally apply to nuclear ones. A shorter route between Europe and Japan may reduce operating costs and could enhance the safety and security of nuclearmaterial. Shippers are also attracted by the prospect of reducing political opposition along current routes. These advantages are offset by the cost of building specialised ships, uncertainties associated with Russia and its icebreaker fleet, and uncertainties regarding the risk and effects of a severe transport accident involving radioactive material. The likelihood of using the NSR for nuclear transport remains uncertain. Transit use is unlikely without a basis for long-term transport between Europe and east Asia. Russia's plans to expand its nuclear services industry are not dependent on using the NSR: the Arctic alternative via the port of Dudinka is only one of several suggested routes. Whether it is selected will depend upon whom Russia gains as customers and whether it provides the most convenient, cost-efficient option.