The use of SCUBA diving techniques in the study of sublittoral fauna has been shown to be valuable in temperate and tropical waters, and many workers are presently using underwater photography and systematic sampling techniques to gain a more complete picture of plant and animal life in the sea. The use of these techniques in Antarctica in recent years has made possible sampling of previously unexplored areas.

“The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world and not in a closet.” This advice was given by the Earl of Chesterfield to his son in 1746 and, although it was not intended as such, it could well have inspired all those geophysicists who have ever left their laboratories to make observations in the field, or who have compared the results of their own experiments with those of their colleagues in other parts of the world.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the facilities that have been developed forconducting biological studies through the permanent, or nearly permanent, sea ice cover ofMcMurdo Sound, Antarctica.

The earliest Antarctic expeditions into inshore areas casually observed and collectedbiota either from shipboard and small boats on rareoccasions when ice conditions were favourable, or from holes or cracks in the ice when temperatures were high enough to preventrapid refreezing. The facilities and techniques described here have evolved since 1958 from similar crude and time-consuming techniques to sophisticated, efficient operations that can now be carried out continuously through ice cover of less than 1 m to over 4 m.

The economic foundation of Alaska is not sufficiently broad and diversified to be secure. For twenty years past, the economy has been bolstered by heavy expenditures of federal funds, first on the building and manning of large military installations, more recently on the building and manning of DEW-line and BMEWS radar sites. But in the last few years, finding expenditure of military money within the State much reduced, Alaskan businessmen and legislators have become increasingly eager to secure the interest of other agencies capable of investing large sums in programmes of construction and development.

Great improvements have taken place in the last few years in the dressing of hair seal pelts for furs and the market for these furs has diversified and expanded. Consequently, the catching of hair seals of all species has intensified and the stocks of Harp Seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus)and Hood Seals (Cystophora cristata) of the North Atlantic, particularly, are under heavy pressure

Sept. 18th [1824]. The young bay ice was found this morning to have formed over Barrows Straits, in which we were firmly fixed until next morning, when a smart breeze from the north broke it all up again and let us free to work up to the head of the bay; passing several whales and sea urchins en route. The young bay ice which had formed in sheltered places had, by the strong wind, been converted into (what is known here as) Pan-cake ice. The ships bored their way through with difficulty.

During the austral summer of 1963–64 an investigation was started near “Mc-Murdo” on the diving habits of the Weddell Seal (Leptonychotes weddelli). The Weddell Seal was selected for this investigation because of some unique characteristics of its behaviour and because of the environment in which it occurs at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. For eight to ten months of each year the sea ice provides a solid cover except for tidal cracks along the coast, pressure cracks between old and new ice, and scattered holes cut for oceanographic work. This gives the seals rather specific areas where they may surface in order to breathe. When they visit these breathing holes, instruments may be attached to them with a high probability that they will revisit the same hole and allow the investigator to remove the instrument. With this knowledge of the Weddell Seal' diving behaviour, it was my intention not only to gain some idea of the maximum diving epths and submergence times, but also to obtain information on such things as rates of descent and ascent, cruising depths and submarine orientation patterns. To determine these various parameters two types of instrument were needed, a depth-time device for recording dive profiles and a smaller, more easily attached unit that could be used to measure maximum depth of dives of a large number of seals.

The Geographical Branch is the smallest of six branches of the Canadian Government's Department of Mines and Technical Surveys. Its staff comprises thirty professional geographers and has a total establishment of eighty-five. In addition it has positions for thirty-three students and nine university geographers during the summer field season. As the Branch's responsibilities embrace the full range of geographical studies of Canada, the world's third largest country by area, it has to be selective in its approach. Thus, in 1960, the Baffin Island Project was initiated as its first long-term programme of co-ordinated research in physical geography and allied fields in the natural sciences. This programme is the prime responsibility of the Branch's Division of Physical Geography, which contains about one third of the total professional staff.

Maritime traffic in ice-congested waters in Canada moves under the control of the Canadian Coast Guard or with its close support, the annual sea supply of Arctic establishments is carried out mainly by merchant ships chartered for the purpose, escorted by icebreakers and assisted by shallow-draft Northern supply vessels and locally based landing barges. A rapidly growing commercial traffic into the Gulf of St Lawrence in winter is provided with routing advice or icebreaker escort on an organized basis worked out in consultation with the commercial interests. These and other related operations have developed in recent years with meteorological and other scientific support provided by various agencies of the Government of Canada.

The Antarctic Peninsula, the islands rising from the Scotia Ridge, and the Falkland Islands are a key area for biologists interested in the origin, relationships, and adaptations of the Antarctic flora and fauna. Of all Antarctic regions, furthermore, this has perhaps been the most intensively studied. The pioneer observations of J. R. and J. G. Forster during Cook's circumnavigation in 1772–75, and of James Eights in 1833 (Caiman, 1937), supplemented by the less systematic accounts of those engaged in early nineteenth-century sealing and whaling voyages (Weddell, 1825; Allen, 1899) paved the way for the thorough scientific programmes of more modern expeditions. The first of these, the Belgica expedition under de Gerlache, 1897–99, yielded much general information and brought back an apterous fly {Belgica antarctica),the first higher insect to be discovered in the true Antarctic. Soon afterwards, the Swedish South Polar Expedition led by Nordenskjold, 1901–04, brought to the Antarctic an outstanding botanist, the late C. J. F. Skottsberg, whose botanical researches on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic themes were to last for over half a century (Skottsberg, 1963). During the following decade the two French expeditions led by Charcot, 1903–05 and 1908–10, contributed important microbiological and ornithological information, and in 1902–04 the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition under Bruce made the first study of the South Orkney Islands and provided a general evaluation of botanical and biogeographical problems (Rudmose Brown, 1912). All these expeditions made general collections of flora and fauna which revealed that the Antarctic Peninsula and its adjacent islands were the richest area, biologically speaking, of the whole Antarctic region. Farther north, the Swedish Magellanic Expedition, led by Skottsberg in 1907–09, provided what is still the only published account of the vegetation of the Falkland Islands and information vital to the evaluation of biogeographical relationships between the Scotia Ridge, the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Magellanic region of South America. Skottsberg (1912) also described the vegetation of South Georgia, where pioneer work had been done by Will during the German International Polar Year expedition, 1882–83. The botanical work on this island, up to 1964, has recently been comprehensively reviewed by Greene (1964a).

For the purpose of this paper, northern Canada comprises all the territory north of lat 60° N. Included in this area of approximately 1500000 square miles are all of Yukon and Northwest Territories and small parts of Quebec and Labrador. Although the area is clearly defined by latitude, the subject matter of this paper also takes into account those developments farther south which have a direct effect upon the north.

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 May 1956, an article in this Journal described the mapping of the Falkland Islands Dependencies up to that date (Leay, 1956). In March 1962, that part of the Dependencies lying south of 60° S was re-named British Antarctic Territory. This is an account of the maps of both the Dependencies and the Territory that have been published by the Directorate of Overseas Surveys* since 1956 and of the methods that have been used in their production.

There is a long record of medical research and observation in the Antarctic, almost as long as the record of exploration. The early expeditions usually had a medical officer who described the medical hazards of the Antarctic. In this article, an account will be given of the research undertaken by medical officers of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) and, subsequently, of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). A more detailed report will be found in the chapter entitled “Man and the environment” in Antarctic research (Priestley et al. eds, 1964).

It was noted in Table 3 of the first paper that the failure rate of common types of valves is about one half per cent per thousand hours of operation. Some other components are as unreliable as this, but they are not employed in such large numbers in typical electronic equipment so that (at least until very recently) valves are much the commonest cause of electronic equipment failure. The mechanical and electrical tests which valves are required to pass before the Armed Services grant type approval are given in Joint Service Specification K1001, Ministry of Aviation, June 1958. In an analysis of failure reports made in 1953 in the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, civil aviation, and under typical laboratory conditions, the proportion of faults traced to valves ranged from 45 to 55 per cent of the total. Under conditions of rough handling the average life of valves is likely to be further reduced, more so than for any other common component, so that the number of faults and the proportion of faults due to valves, will be even higher.

Svalbard comprises the islands between longs 10 to 35° E and between lats 74 to 81° N. The largest of these islands is Vestpitsbergen, followed by Nordaustlandet, Edgeøya, Barentsøya and Bjørnøya. The archipelago lies in the northwestern part of the Barents-Kara shelf. To south and east the continental shelf is covered by the shallow waters of the Barents Sea, whilst to the north and west the shelf falls away rapidly into the Arctic Basin and the Greenland Sea.

The radiation hazards to humans in certain northern regions, and to reindeer, caribou and moose, due to radioactive materials from fallout in their diets, have been discussed recently in numerous publications. The following factors make this problem of particular interest:

i. The peculiarity of lichens to absorb and retain larger quantities of radioactive fallout than other plants. This peculiarity of lichens is exemplified by some measurements of Paakkiola and Miettinen made during 1960 and 1961. They found that the strontium-90 content of lichens in northern Finland varied between 350 and 4500 SU, whereas for grass and other plants from the same area the figures varied between 43 and 273 SU.

The United States Army Research Support Group (USARSG), with headquarters at “TUTO”, provided all logistic support for the second phase of a co-operative programme of field work on the ice sheet of north-west Greenland designed to evaluate radio echo sounding techniques, to compare results with seismic and gravity surveys, and to continue measurements of strain rate in the ice sheet.