In July 1971, the Moravian mission will have been working in northern Labrador for two hundred years. Theirs was the first mission to North American Eskimos and, as such, it has considerable historical interest. However it is not the purpose of this paper either to give a summary of the whole period—this can be found elsewhere (Anon, 1871; Davey, 1905; Kleivan, 1966)—or to attempt a general assessment of the mission's work. For good or ill, the mission has made its contribution, and the historian leaves consideration of its legacy to the social scientist (Kleivan, 1966; Ben-Dor, 1966). I shall concentrate here upon the foundation and early years of the mission, and try to explain how it gained its foothold.

The European north of the USSR can be roughly defined as the area between lats 60° and 70°N and longs 30° and 70°E. It covers some 1 500 000 km2; from the Finnish-Soviet frontier to the Urals is about 1 400 km, and from the Barents Sea to Vologda, about 1120 km. The area is intersected by the river systems of Dvina (750 km), Mezen (910 km), Vychegda (1 130 km) and Pechora (1 790 km). The inhabitants in 1960 numbered approximately 4 648 000.

To know the exact size and shape of the earth has long been a goal of scientists. Man's attempts to locate himself and to determine the configuration of his planet date from at least the time of Eratosthenes, about 200 BC. He observed that on a particular day in mid summer the sun shone directly down a well in Syene, Egypt (thus the zenith angle=0°). Supposing the earth to be a sphere, he measured the zenith angle on the same day to be 7.2° at Alexandria. His calculation of the distance between the points, based on the travel time of a camel caravan between them and on the assumption that both were on the same meridian, gave him enough information to compute the earth's circumference: 7.2°/360° = l/50. Therefore, the distance between Syene and Alexandria was 1/50th of the earth's circumference. His calculations were about 16 per cent too large. Considering, however, the primitiveness of his measurements and assumptions, his value was remarkably close. Two later determinations were made using this “astrogeodetic” principle, but with little increase in accuracy.

In the time-scale of human history we have only just realized that air has substance and predictable properties. In the last 50 years, this realization has enabled man almost to overcome distance by means of aircraft. In the next 50 years, we can almost overcome the vagaries of weather by placing an airsupported membrane between ourselves and the elements. The theory involved is simple; the problems lie in its application and in finding suitable materials for the membrane. However, just as the development of the aircraft industry fostered the production of aluminium, so the development of air structures will doubtless encourage the manufacture of translucent and reflective plastic membranes.

Until the early 20th century, exploration of the Arctic Basin was hindered by the lack of vehicles that could traverse ice and water as well as cross leads and pressure ridges. This lack affected not only movements of explorers themselves but also the transport of food, supplies, and the equipment required to sustain life in an inhospitable environment. In 1925, however, an aircraft made the first successful landing on pack ice and ushered in an era of scientific stations on the pack ice itself.

For the last twenty years there has been considerable Soviet interest in the circumnavigation of Antarctica by the Russian naval expedition of 1819–21, led by Captain T. T. Bellingshausen, with Lieut M. P. Lazarev as his second in command, in the sloops Vostok and Mirnyy. It is now reasonably certain that Bellingshausen sighted the Antarctic continent several times, notably on 27 January 1820 (New Style) at a point about lat 69°21′S, long 2°14′W, and was thus the first to see it (Edward Bransfield sighted the north-west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula at about lat 63°50′S, long 60°30′W on 30 January 1820, three days later). Bellingshausen did not claim to have done so however, but his descriptions of what he saw tally very well with what the edge of the continent here is now known to look like. There is one relatively new point. Bellingshausen's first sighting has been moved forward one day, from the 28th to the 27th, because it has been shown that he was keeping ship's time, from mid-day to mid-day, and therefore that what his log called the 28th (his sighting being in the second half of the day) was what the civil calendar would call the 27th (Belov, 1963, p 19–29). All this much is well documented and unlikely to be disputed. The question is, how much importance did he, and his contemporaries, attach to this discovery? And did he realize that he had seen the edge of a continent? Recent Soviet studies have sought to show that he had a very good idea of the importance of what he had seen, and that this idea did get through to his contemporaries. It is here that there is room for argument with the Soviet scholars.

During the period covered by this instalment of our list, the accomplishments of the North West Company, both in geographical exploration and in the realization of profits were great. It consolidated its position in the fur-rich Athabasca district and, with a few posts along Mackenzie River, began to draw in the furs of that immense territory. Its traders invaded not only the western part of Rupert's Land but even Hudson Bay itself. The Hudson's Bay Company rose only slowly to the challenge of its formidable rival, but, gradually, it began to adopt new policies and new techniques and to meet the North West Company on its own grounds and on its own terms. Finally, after a bitter struggle that was almost the destruction of both companies, the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1821, effectively absorbed the North West Company in a coalition that gave the older company greater strength than ever and a wider monopoly than Prince Rupert had thought of.