By a Grace, dated 26 November 1920, the Senate of the University of Cambridge approved an earlier recommendation of the Council of the Senate “That the University would welcome the establishment of the proposed Polar Research Institute at Cambridge.…” Frank Debenham's “Retrospect”, written to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of this date, told of the circumstances that led to the formation of the Institute, and of its aims and facilities. Now, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of that date, a brief note seems appropriate.

There had been no English expedition to search for the North-west Passage for 40 years before the Hudson's Bay Company received its royal charter on 2 May 1670. Early enthusiasm, generated largely by Sir Humphrey Gilbert and the “Colleagues of the Fellowship for the discovery of the North-West Passage”, had been put to the test by the maritime skills of Frobisher and of Davis. But, although Frobisher had returned from his first voyage, in October 1576, convinced that he had found the passage and had “passed above fiftie leagues therein”, he had in fact crossed westwards from the coast of Greenland to enter Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island (Collinson, 1867, p 72); experience was to prove that no passage lay that way. Davis, too, came back from his first voyage convinced that, in 1585, he had in all likelihood been in “the place and passage by us laboured for” (Hakluyt, 1927, Vol 5, p 333). He had then entered Cumberland Sound, also on Baffin Island. Davis's second voyage brought him to Hudson Strait and convinced him (as Frobisher in turn had thought) that the great “overfall” of the water there betokened a vast sea to the westwards. He was sure that the passage could now be found without further cost. But Davis's third voyage, in 1587, took him, first, north through Davis Strait up the coast of Baffin Island and then, crossing eastwards, up the coast of Greenland as high as lat 73 °N, where he still found the sea open although the wind was contrary. Returning down the coast, he was again impressed by the “great ruttes” of the “overfall” in Hudson Strait and he concluded that, of the four possible openings for the passage, this one was the most likely. The others were to be found due north up Davis Strait, which he thought might be no more than a great gulf, or through Frobisher Bay or through Cumberland Sound, in both of which he had been held by ice (Hakluyt, 1927, Vol 5, p 281–336.)

The year 1969 was a watershed in Alaska's history. This was the year when the full extent of the international petroleum industry's invasion became apparent to all Alaskans. Most viewed it as a cause of rejoicing and optimism. Overnight, the State of Alaska had become rich as the industry made bonus payments of over $900 million for oil and gas leases on the North Slope, and the prospects loomed of literally hundreds of millions of dollars of annual royalty and tax payments during the decade to come. The state no longer had to worry about where its money was coming from but could concentrate on spending. Private employment climbed, and all the gold rush legends of quick wealth resumed currency. The magnitude of what the oil developers and promoters had accomplished and what they proposed went beyond anything the most enthusiastic Alaskans had ever dreamed of. No physical barrier and no financial cost seemed too great to hinder a prolonged boom. All that Alaskans had to worry about was how to take their share.

The world's oil magnates have recently turned their eyes to Siberia, Alaska, Arctic Canada, and the Chukchi and North seas and have invested huge sums in exploration for petroleum in lands scarcely touched by modern technology a decade ago.

Throughout the Arctic, serious questions have arisen regarding environmental and cultural by-products of petroleum exploration and development. Perhaps nowhere has there been greater public concern than in Alaska, which has experienced commercial oil production since 1958 near Cook Inlet and which is now working out plans for development of the Prudhoe Bay pool.

Aviation is playing an increasingly important role in developing the resource potential of northern Canada. It is the most common means of supplying the oil rigs on Melville Island, the mining camps in the Mackenzie Mountains, and the meteorological stations on the pack ice. New technology has increased both capability and capacity. Pipe and drilling equipment can now be flown non-stop from southern Canada to airfields on the Queen Elizabeth Islands; helicopters able to carry two tons then distribute the equipment to well sites. Very rapid and precise land surveying can be conducted using the Bell Jet Ranger helicopter. Recently, a 16 640 km2 region of northern Alberta was surveyed in less than five days.

In the popular science journal Nauka i Zhizn' [Science and Life], No 10,1969, there is an article by N. Bolotnikov on the two Russians who took part in Scott's last expedition, Anton Omel'chenko, stable-man, and Dmitriy “Geroff”, dog-driver, giving information on their lives before and after the expedition. Both these men are spoken of very warmly in Scott's journal. They appear to have been excellent fellows, who not only worked hard and devotedly with their respective charges, but also got along very well with their British messmates, and it is interesting to know a little more about them.