Summary:In a recent study (Weeks and Campbell, in press), we made a rather complete examination of the idea that icebergs could advantageously be used as a source of fresh water. The origin of the general idea of transporting icebergs is obscure; it may date from the 1850's when ice was transported from Alaska to California as a commercial venture. The current revival of the idea, in particular as applied to the water problems of southern California, can be credited to John Issacs of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (Burt, 1956). However no critical evaluation was ever published. We initially undertook the present study because our intuition “told” us that the idea was untenable and we thought that we could easily prove that this was the case, thereby laying the idea to rest. Our intuition proved to be wrong and we now believe that the idea is, indeed, highly attractive when applied to certain locations in the Southern Hemisphere. This note briefly outlines our approach to analyzing the problem and our results

The following report is based on work done in conjunction with the Canadian “Operation Hazen-Tanquary” at Hazen Camp (81° 49'N, 71° 18'W), Ellesmere Island, NWT, in the summers of 1966, 1967, and 1968. Hazen Camp offers an excellent high Arctic site because of the extensive facilities available and because the botany and entomology are comparatively well known and some insect-flower relationships there have already been considered. Furthermore, the Lake Hazen trough, sheltered by mountain ranges to the north, enjoys less cloudy and more benign summers than most high Arctic localities. These factors contribute to the support of a biota that is relatively rich for the high Arctic, even though the ecosystem is considerably simpler than in the low Arctic. There are only about 75 species of Dicotyledoneae and about 250 species of Arthropoda to consider, which makes it possible for one man to investigate such a broad ecological problem as insect-flower relations.

The “Canadian north” in the terms of communications means those parts of Canada not enjoying telephone, radio, and television services presently available in the populated-southern belt. Generally this is the area above lat 55 °N in the west and above 52°N in the provinces east of Ontario.

Since the time of first contact with Europeans, the social system of the Eskimos of Canada has undergone a severe alteration in its structure and function.1 Under a generally paternal and directive administration, this process of social change has been very disorderly and has produced a continuing state of crisis in present-day Eskimo society. Indications of this state of crisis are the incidences among Eskimos of poverty, unemployment, venereal disease, drunkenness, and juvenile delinquency at rates that are markedly higher than among other Canadians, taken as a group (Rowley, 1972; Economic Council of Canada, 1968, p 121). Further change in Eskimo society is inevitable, but the speed at which change occurs and the directions it will take are controllable. Recognizing this fact, many Eskimos and non-Eskimos see the need for a new and more enlightened northern administration, one that would enable the Eskimos to cope with, adapt to, and share control of the institutions that now shape their lives.

Electoral politics is to politics as university education is to education; a highly visible, formal, and ritualistic process, the function of which is as much symbolic as it is substantial. In Alaska as elsewhere, and for Natives as for other groups, electoral politics is only one dimension of an elaborate wideranging political process. The matter of aboriginal land claims, for example, dominated Alaskan Native politics through the 1960's, but this issue was only peripherally one of electoral politics. However, because Alaskan Natives have not traditionally had access to many political advantages, such as money, property, communication facilities, education, health, and organization, that are available to other groups, voting has been an important means of political influence for them. For these reasons and because electoral behaviour indirectly reflects many non-electoral phenomena, electoral politics is a good point of departure for the study of Native politics in Alaska. This article surveys selected factors that have conditioned Native electoral participation generally, the evolution of Native representation in Alaska's territorial and state legislatures, and collective voting patterns. Two earlier papers (Rogers,1969; Harrison, 1970) have dealt even more selectively with this subject. Together they offer a general introduction to it.

The T-3 ice island case involved two trials in the United States of a Mexican-American, Mario Escamilla, for allegedly causing the death of a Negro coworker, Bennie Lightsey, on an ice island then at lat 84°45.8'N, long 106°24.4'W, on the High Seas, about 240 km north of Ellesmere Island on 16 July 1970. A federal judge in Virginia allowed Escamilla's first trail to proceed without definitively deciding on objections to jurisdiction, for he expected a ruling on this point on appeal. Issues raised by that trial are covered elsewhere (Pharand, 1971; Wilkes, 1972).

With this instalment of our list, the Klondike gold rush reached its height and, nearly as quickly, began to decline as the miners’ interest turned to newer strikes in Alaska. The great influx of prospectors to the Klondike region led to the passage of the Yukon Act and to the extension into the area of the enforcement of Canadian laws by the North West Mounted Police. In most other respects, the important trends noticed in the previous instalment continue: the officers of the Geological Survey of Canada and other scientists continued their careful and productive surveys; missionaries extended their efforts to remoter tribes; and sportsmen ranged still farther afield in search of big game. The number of expeditions each year steadily increased, and we are having to be increasingly selective in the ones we list. It has been impossible to include individual journeys to the Klondike, even of those persons who published narratives.