Readers may wonder why such warlike-sounding ships should intrude into the pages of a journal that is devoted to the study of regions where we must hope that war will always be excluded. It will be seen, however, that many of the vessels that contributed to the exploration of both the Arctic and the Antarctic were drawn from a type of ship denominated “bomb vessel” or merely “bomb” for short (see Table 1). Their “fiery” or “explosive” names still appear on the map, and several of them had distinguished careers. Some account of these interesting ships may provide a useful background to polar studies.

Charles Rowlands, a tea planter and a cousin of mine, decided to finance a sealing expedition from Australia to Kerguelen [Iles Kerguelen], and since he could not go himself he gave me the opportunity of looking after his interests. I went out in the P&O steamer China, all expenses paid. I left England in the middle of 1897 and arrived in Australia in the early spring. I was paid £100, with all expenses. I shared the officers' cabin and was not to be allowed to do crew duties. I was 22 years old at the time.

The Birnirk culture is important in Inupiak Eskimo prehistory because the Thule and Western Thule cultures and all recent prehistoric Eskimo cultures derive from it. Its appearance on the American side of Bering Strait has puzzled archaeologists because it is linked to the cultures of the Asian side of the strait and is not lineally related to the cultures, Norton and Ipiutak, that it replaced in Alaska. Recent excavations at Cape Nome, Alaska, have shed light on the nature of this replacement. I carried out these excavations during 1969–71 under the auspices of the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania and under the supervision of Professor Froelich Rainey. The University Museum and the Explorers Club gave financial assistance.

Plants introduced by man play a very minor role in the flora of the Mackenzie River, delta and are primarily restricted to centres of habitation such as Inuvik, Aklavik, and Reindeer Station (Map 1) (Cody, 1965; Gill, 1971). Within the delta itself, however, a number of introduced species are recurringly present on one geomorphic position, the point bar, which forms the convex section of a meander bend in flood plains and deltas (Fig 1). The Mackenzie delta supports a northerly extension of the boreal forest, and most of the higher levees are occupied by trees, particularly White Spruce Picea glauca. Point bars are constructed of coarser alluvium than other delta landforms, thus they have a drier and warmer soil environment than other locations (Gill, 1972a); vegetation response to this locally ameliorated environment has been such that virtually every point bar in the Mackenzie delta is occupied by a discrete plant community dominated by Balsam Poplar Populus balsamifera (Gill, 1972b). The poplar stands are surprisingly well developed for such a northerly latitude, 68°45′N (Fig 2).

In this paper I review some of the fields in which Lapps are involved in the over-all development, or lack of development, of northern Finland. I shall limit my perspective in two ways: first, I am concerned to document those issues that directly affect the Lapps at present. This present is taken as 1972, since I was in north-east Lapland in 1971–72, carrying out fieldwork among the Skolt Lapps; my view is thus somewhat biassed to the east (Ingold, 1971). Secondly, I am not directly concerned with the position of Lapps in Norway, Sweden, and the Soviet Union. This is not to deny that there exists a great deal in common among Lapps of these different countries. Equally, the fortunes of Lapps have been crucially affected by the different circumstances pertaining in the nation-states which, through history, have been drawn up around them. My subject, then, concerns how Lapps fare, economically, culturally and politically, in the context of modern Finland.

With this instalment, we conclude our presentation of expeditions and historical events in northern Canada. Although we end here at about 1909, we have compiled the list up to 1920, a termination date chosen because the introduction of aircraft to northern Canada at about that time brought very many more persons into the region, and the list, to be continued after that date, would have to be conducted on different principles. We have presented these instalments in Polar Record as a means of preliminary publication, hoping that such appearance would elicit corrections and additions from readers before our work is published in full, not only with the entries seen in these pages, but also with an extensive roster of the names of persons associated with the expeditions described, a list of ships, a topical and regional index, and a supporting bibliography for each entry. Discussion is now going forward with officers of the Human History Division, National Museum of Man, Ottawa, the department that has financed this work, about full publication. We should like to take this opportunity to thank the National Museum of Man for its support, to acknowledge the permission of the Governor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company, whose archives we have used, to include hitherto unpublished dates and facts, and to say that we have greatly enjoyed the work of compiling this list and have especially enjoyed corresponding with the many persons who have written to us about it.