The fur seals of the North Pacific comprise three distinct herds, which do not intermingle in any way, having distinct breeding grounds, feeding grounds, and routes of migration. By far the most important of the three herds is that which resorts to the American Pribilof Islands. This herd breeds upon the islands of St Paul and St George during the summer, and in winter passes down through the channels of the Aleutian Islands into the Pacific Ocean. The migration reaches as far south as the coast of southern California and returns along the west coast of North America. The next herd in importance is that resorting to the Russian Komandorski (Commander) Islands. This breeds upon the islands of Beringa and Medni, passing in winter down along the eastern coast of Japan and returning by the same route. The third herd is resident in the Sea of Okhotsk on the Japanese Robben (Kaihyoto) Island, where a considerable remnant still exists. It formerly occupied other rookeries on four islands of the Japanese (formerly Russian) Kuril (Chishimi) group, but these are now virtually extinct. The migration route of this herd lies in the inland sea of Japan.

The following place-names in the South Orkney Islands and the Antarctic Continent were proposed by Dr W. S. Bruce; they were first published in the maps accompanying his paper in the Scottish Geographical Magazine for June 1905, and in the Reports on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of S.Y. Scotia, 1902–04 (Edinburgh, 1907–).

The study of glaciers may be divided into two branches: (1) the study of the physical properties of glacier ice, firn, and snow; (2) the investigation of the glacier's regime and its meteorological causes. The first branch comprises the thermal and crystallographic conditions of the ice, firn and snow of glaciers, and their transitional forms; also the plasticity, movement, erosion, etc. of glaciers. The second branch is concerned with quantitative determinations of accumulation, ablation and the total regime of glaciers, and with the meteorological causes affecting them. This second branch also includes the reactions of different types of glaciers to changes in their regime.

The lands discovered in the Antarctic regions, by Captain Smith, of Blythe, in the brig Williams, have been the subject of various papers in the different periodical works which pay attention to such subjects. The Literary Gazette furnished the first notice of this discovery, and, not long after, one of the Edinburgh Magazines supplied some farther particulars, which we copied into our pages. There has not yet, however, appeared any full and regular history of the new land, of which maps and charts are now selling in all the principal shops in London.

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.

The aurora is a peculiar glow visible in cloud-free night sky. It is most frequently seen in high latitudes, but during very intense displays it may occur even in the tropics. The aurora in the northern hemisphere is called aurora borealis; in the southern aurora australis.

The following notes and accompanying map have resulted from an attempt to devise a regional classification for the Institute's increasing collection of reports, maps and other documentary material dealing with northern Russia. Changes in the position and function of administrative boundaries present a special cartographic problem when they are of such bewildering frequency, for the dynamism inherent in the Soviet administrative structure since its inception in 1917 has not yet shown any signs of diminishing. While much of the available material can conveniently be classified under the headings of the major administrative regions existing at any particular date, the writer must admit that he is still not much nearer to a satisfactory solution of the original problem which prompted the inquiry.

Studies of the avenues by which heat is lost from the human body are of basic importance in the understanding of man's reaction to a polar climate. The following notes aim to draw attention to some of the more important physiological work that has recently been published in this field.

One of the minor misfortunes of the war has been the suspension of many lines of scientific investigation; while another has been the difficulty of receiving information concerning researches in lands in which, despite the war, it has been possible to pursue important original or collative work. The U.S.A. is a case in point, and it will be of interest to all students of ice and snow that there has appeared from the pen of Mr François E. Matthes, the well-known head of the Section of Glacial Geology of the U.S. Geological Survey, an important monograph entitled “Glaciers”. It is published as Chap. 5 in Hydrology (Physics of the Earth, Vol. 9, edited by Oscar E. Meinzer, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1942). This chapter of seventy pages reviews some of the work done and the advances made in recent years, more particularly in glaciology, as distinct from glacial geology. Incidentally, it is common knowledge that while there is in all a very large body of students of glacial geology, that is to say of the actual effects of ice masses upon the land surface, there are at work remarkably few glaciologists, whose particular study is the physical condition and constitution of those masses, even in countries where glaciers are a normal feature of the landscape.

There is a toast which, in the writer's opinion, ought to be drunk whenever the great deeds of an expedition and its leader are being honoured, and that is “To the Second in Command”. After a few such toasts someone might be moved to write a book on the famous Seconds-in-Command who grace the pages of polar narrative, and an impressive list it is. To mention but a few there are Crozier for Ross in the early part of last century, Sverdrup for Nansen in the latter part, Frank Wild for Shackleton, and the subject of this note, Armitage, for Scott on his Discovery Expedition, 1901–04.

The following notes are based on impressions gained during my stay among Eskimo and European trappers at Clavering Øya, North-East Greenland, in 1939–40. Much attention has been focused on the problem of sledge dogs by European trappers, for during the trapping season they have to depend on their dogs because of the long distances that have to be covered. In an attempt to develop a new type of sledge dog, with the endurance of a Greenland Husky and the speed of an Alsatian, many attempts have been made during the last ten years to breed dogs with these special qualities in view.

Dr Mill's well-known collection of Antarctic books is without doubt the most extensive and interesting collection of Antarctic books in Britain. The most important volumes reached Cambridge in 1939, but on account of the war the main part of the library remained at Dr Mill's home at Dormans Park. These have now arrived at the Institute and the collection has been placed on the shelves.

Spekk finger is the Norwegian name for a condition which is confined to people engaged in Arctic sealing. The word indicates that the disease has its origin from the blubber of seals and other mammals.