In 1819, the Russian government launched two expeditions: the first squadron of two ships departed to explore the southern polar areas, and the second set out for the northern polar areas. The expedition to the southern polar areas took place under the command of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen. Up to the present day, very little information is available, from the Russian literature, about the initiator and main goals of the expedition. At the same time, the travels and main results of the expedition have been widely popularised, but not necessarily accurately, in Russian as well as in English. On the basis of recently discovered documents, this article attempts to establish who the initiator of these Russian expeditions was, how the expeditions were prepared, and whether the main tasks of the expeditions were realised. The conclusion is that Jean-Baptiste Prevost de Sansac, Marquis de Traversay was the initiator of the Russian Antarctic expedition, not the Russian navigators Adam Johan von Krusenstern, Otto von Kotzebue, Gavrila A. Sarychev or Vasilii M. Golovnin as stated in Soviet publications. The real aim of the expedition was to discover the Antarctic continent which would have added glory to de Traversay as well as to Emperor Alexander I and, in a wider sense, also to the Russian empire. All dates are given according to the old style calendar. The difference with the new style calendar is 12 days.

The archaeological remains associated with a Netsilik Inuit camp, illustrated by John Ross at Sheriff Harbour, Boothia Peninsula, NWT in 1831, are described. The site, consisting of four tent rings and two external hearths, was originally occupied by 23 Inuit over a four-day period. Associated with a first-contact between Inuit and Europeans, and relating to a recorded historical event, the remains are of unique archaeological and historic interest, and an aid to the study of various site formation processes.

[A Commission of Inquiry into the terms and conditions that would have to be established in the event of a natural gas pipeline corridor being built along the Mackenzie Valley heard evidence for about 18 months in all the potentially affected communities, as well as in Yellowknife and some southern cities. The Commission was headed by Justice Thomas Berger, and came to be known as the Berger Inquiry. This article is based on material contained in two papers, entitled ‘Industrial impact’ and ‘An overview’, presented at the Inquiry by the author in August 1976. We are grateful to the Inquiry for allowing us to make use of the material.

The European north of the USSR can be roughly defined as the area between lats 60° and 70°N and longs 30° and 70°E. It covers some 1 500 000 km2; from the Finnish-Soviet frontier to the Urals is about 1 400 km, and from the Barents Sea to Vologda, about 1120 km. The area is intersected by the river systems of Dvina (750 km), Mezen (910 km), Vychegda (1 130 km) and Pechora (1 790 km). The inhabitants in 1960 numbered approximately 4 648 000.

Samuel Hearne is best known to students of polar history because of his famous overland expedition of 1770–72, when he became the first European to reach the northern coast of North America at the mouth of the Coppermine River. Fewer know of his other notable journeys, in which he established Cumberland House as an inland trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company; fewer still may be aware of his capture, while Governor of Prince of Wales' Fort on Hudson Bay, by the French naval commander la Pérouse in 1782. That Hearne was an attractive and interesting character emerges clearly from his own account of his major expedition (a classic in exploration literature) and his other writings. However, he was also a figure of controversy, both during his life and subsequently, and this lends interest to his story.