Herbert Ponting, Robert Falcon Scott's photographer and cinematographer on the Terra Nova expedition, was the first specialized, professional photographer to accompany a polar expedition. Born in 1870, he had already acquired an international reputation as a travel writer and photographer before joining Scott in 1910. His personality did not mesh readily with those of other expedition members, but in his film 90° North Ponting produced what is arguably the finest travel documentary before Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North. His work compares favourably with professional film records of much later exploration, for example those of Hillary and Tenzing on Everest in 1953. After his year in Antarctica he produced various versions of the film, and undertook a number of unsuccessful enterprises. He died in 1935. We can still learn from the work of this pompous British photographic artist from the early years of the century.

A multi-box corer is described, recently designed and constructed as part of the Euromar Project, through cooperation between the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and Fa. MAK Krupp Maschinenbau GmbH Kiel. Deployed successfully during the RV Polarstern expedition ANT VI/3 early in 1988, the multiple corer provided nine samples over a sampling area of 2–3 m2, thus obtaining more reliable abundance values than a single corer, and providing insights into the spatial variability of macrobenthic organisms. Equipped with a UW-video, the corer facilitates controlled economic collection of sediment and macrobenthos in depths down to 5000 m.

The results of a monitoring study of three Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) rookeries at Cape Bird (77° 13'S, 166°28'E), Antarctica, are presented. Occupied nests were counted immediately after egg laying in most years between 1965 and 1970, and annually from 1974 to 1987. The population has not shown the degree of stability that might be expected of a long-lived species with a low reproductive rate, twice deviating significantly from a mean value of about 37,500 pairs. In the censused rookeries numbers dropped by about 16% in 1967 and a further 30% in 1968. The 1968 decline was attributed to extensive fast ice, but numbers were unaffected in two subsequent years with similar ice conditions. After eight years of relative stability around the pre-1967 level, a period of rapid growth began in 1982 and 1983. The total of 54,000 pairs in 1987, the last year for which numbers are available, was the highest ever counted at Cape Bird. These results stress the need for caution when using bird populations to detect man-induced changes in the marine environment.

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.

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.

The site of Fort Magnesia, the base hut of a three-man expedition to Payer Harbour, Pirn Island, in the Canadian Arctic, has recently been rediscovered by a party from the Geological Survey of Canada. Erected by Robert Stein's party in summer 1899, and used by them for two years, the hut was almost certainly moved to another site by Robert E. Peary for his over-wintering in 1901–02. Only fragments of the hut now remain. Five graves, probably of Peary's Eskimo helpers, are located nearby.