It is just ten years since the Directorate of Colonial Surveys became responsible for the production and publication of maps of the Falkland Islands Dependencies; in this account it is proposed to give a description of the work completed and an outline of the future programme.

“Operation Tabarin”, inaugurated in 1943, marked the re-establishment of British occupation and scientific activity in the region and included in its policy a programme of continuous scientific investigation within the area between 20° and 80° W. This venture later became known as the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, or F.I.D.S. It is in co-operation with F.I.D.S., and more particularly with the surveyors who work at the Directorate for several months on their return from the Antarctic, that the compilation and plotting of a systematic series of medium scale maps has been possible. In 1951 an article was published in this journal giving a full description of the type of survey undertaken, the methods and the instruments used and a brief summary of the maps published and planned.

At first the need was for maps for planning and other non-scientific purposes, but since 1951 the emphasis has moved towards the larger scales which are required principally as a basis for scientific work as well as for general use within the Dependencies. Between 1948 and 1950 a series of maps covering most of the area north of 75° S. was published at 1:500,000, and this is still the most useful scale for gaining a general picture of the topography. In 1953 work began on a series of maps covering a similar area to be published at 1:200,000. During the last ten years maps have been compiled at scales ranging from 1:9 million to 1:15,000, many of which have been printed and issued for general purposes, while others have been produced to illustrate specialized reports on, for example, meteorology in the Dependencies. It is not, however, proposed to include a detailed summary of these maps here, the following description covers only those maps which are on sale to the public or which form part of a systematic series.

In 1955 Hunting Aerosurveys Ltd. were awarded a contract by the Colonial Office to carry out a survey of Graham Land and the South Shetland Islands. The survey was to be made by means of air photography and ground control. The base for the operation was at Port Foster, Deception Island, where an ice-free anchorage for flying boats could be expected during the summer months. The survey is to be continued in 1956–57.

This issue contains an account of the Gough Island Scientific Survey which spent the southern summer of 1955–56 exploring this previously little known island in the South Atlantic. One of the tasks the expedition set itself was the making of sound recordings of the birds and seals to be found there—especially those of the rarer species. As the expedition spent, rather unexpectedly, a good deal of time on Tristan da Cunha in transit to Gough Island, it was possible to make a great many valuable recordings there also.

In 1955 a new station was opened at Ile des Pétrels, off the coast of Terre Adélie, as part of the French contribution to the International Geophysical Year. The author and M. Vallette, who had planned the station at Port-Martin, investigated the properties of a number of prefabricated buildings in order to choose the most suitable type for the new station. The record of fires in polar buildings made it obvious that the materials used should, if possible, be non-inflammable in addition to being light, compact and easy to handle. Finally a metal type was selected, made by the firm of Fillod, Florange, Moselle. These buildings have many advantages. They are non-inflammable, and therefore fire breaking out inside them would be comparatively easy to control; in the fire at Port-Martin (in 1952) a hole had been burnt through the wooden roof of the hut and the forced draught so created, with the aid of a strong wind, made control of the fire impossible. These metal buildings are 30 per cent lighter, and far less cumbersome, than wooden prefabricated buildings of the same size. Fillod buildings had been in use on Ile Amsterdam since 1950 and Iles de Kerguelen since 1951 where they had successfully stood up to winds of 200 km./hour. The U.S. Navy had tested these buildings and proved that they could withstand weights of snow equivalent to 140 kg./sq.m. and a wind force of 160 km./hour. The average wind force at Ile des Pétrels was 34·2 km./hour.

One of the logical reasons for exploration is to collect the maximum of information in a specified time; therefore planning should be based on an appreciation of the pregnable gaps in as many fields of science as possible. Present Antarctic exploration is neglecting the biological sciences and in particular those of an experimental nature. Figures published for the contingents from the British Commonwealth, France and Norway at present in Antarctica include twenty-three physicists, thirteen geologists of different varieties and only two biologists. This neglect probably arises from a too rigid conception that field biology is concerned with classification and with natural history. Antarctica, however, offers great possibilities, and even certain advantages, for much biological work, and in particular its simplicity helps ecological thought and nutritional experimentation.

In an attempt to settle the dispute between the United Kingdom, Argentina and Chile over sovereignty in the Falkland Islands Dependencies, the United Kingdom made unilateral Applications to the International Court of Justice at The Hague on 4 May 1955. The Applications set out the British title, and asked the Court to declare that the Argentine and Chilean encroachments in British Antarctic territory were illegal and invalid under international law.

Both the Argentine and Chilean Governments refused to accept the jurisdiction of the Court.* The United Kingdom Government subsequently expressed its regret at these refusals, and placed on record the fact that it had now taken every step open to it to bring about a peaceful and amicable determination of this question of sovereignty in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Charter of the United Nations. On 18 March 1956 the International Court announced that since neither Argentina nor Chile was prepared to accept the Court's jurisdiction, both cases had been removed from its list.

The term “prairie ice jigger” is a local name given by fishermen of western Canada to a simple but ingenious apparatus used to facilitate setting gill nets beneath an ice surface. A jigger consists of a board and two levers so arranged that a backward pull on a line attached to one lever is translated into a forward thrust which propels the board along beneath the ice. Thus only two holes need be chopped through the ice to set a standard net, and several nets can be set in different directions from any one hole. This represents a considerable saving in time and effort when compared with other methods such as pushing a pole with an attached line from hole to hole until sufficient line has been let out to accommodate a net. The jigger is almost a necessity to fishermen operating in northern areas of Canada, where winter fishing is carried on for several months beneath an ice cover which varies from several inches in thickness to as much as six feet.