Writing as long ago as 1922, Dr Vilhjalmur Stefansson commented: “There are few nowadays who do not agree that the world is round, but there are almost equally few who apply the principle of the world's roundness consistently when they think about going from place to place.” Twenty-three years later, he returned to the same question, with a statement that, far from sounding prophetic, was all too obvious. “If you shoot robot bombs (as Heaven preserve us from ever doing), they will cross the Arctic on their way from London to Seattle, from Peiping to New York, from San Francisco to. Moscow. That is the way the bombers will fly, if we ever permit them to.”

During the war Gronlands Styrelse in Copenhagen was completely cut off from Greenland. Some preparations were made to deal with the situation which would arise when contact was re-established, but there were several unforeseen developments. Thus in 1945 the Danish administration was suddenly confronted with the problem of maintaining a meteorological service which had grown beyond all recognition. In 1939 regular reports had been broadcast by nine stations: five permanent Danish stations, at Julianehaab (control), Godthaab, Godhavn, Angmagssalik and Scoresbysund, two temporary Danish stations at Ella 0 and Morkef jord, and two permanent Norwegian stations, administered by Norges Svalbard- og Ishavs-undersekelser, at Myggbukta and Torgilsbu. In addition, there were some twenty other wireless stations distributed amongst the larger settlements, these being generally low-powered and obsolescent, although a few of them sent in reports to Julianehaab at irregular intervals.

There have been few more controversial figures in the history of exploration than Amerigo Vespucci, and it is therefore necessary to be extremely cautious in deciding whether he did, or did not, discover the island of South Georgia in the year 1501. Humboldt and Mill believed that he might have done so, but thought that, on the whole, his most likely landfall was southern Patagonia or Tierra del Fuego. Matthews, who devoted considerable attention to working out distances and directions, came to the conclusion that Vespucci very probably arrived at South Georgia after leaving the coast of Brazil and sailing south-westwards, while the Australian map of Antarctica, published in Canberra in 1939, and the Antarctic Pilot (London, second edition, 1948) have respectively described this achievement as a probability and as a possibility.

In 1941 the Admiralty decided to construct a radar station to overlook Denmark Strait off the north-west coast of Iceland.

The site finally selected was on the top of the promontory between Aðalvik and Ísafjarðardjúp at approximately 1600 ft. (480 m.) above sea-level. A base camp was to be set up at Sæbol in Aðalvik for the maintenance of the station. There was no landward communication except with a few hamlets in the immediate neighbourhood. Supplies were brought by sea from Reykjavík, 180 miles (290 km.) away. There was a telegraph service from Reykjavík to Ísafjörður, and a telephone from Ísafjörður to the base camp. Radio communication was used as little as possible.

In July 1945, the Secretary of State for the Colonies appointed me leader of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey for two years, an appointment which brought a prospect of a free existence in the wide open spaces as compared with routine office life. I soon found this prospect fading over the horizon. For months I was tied to an office, early and late, surrounded by scores of papers, insistent questioners and a ceaseless telephone bell. All this was necessary before the stores were ordered, packed and dispatched and the staff appointed.

Near the Poles, the geographical system of reference by meridians and parallels approaches limiting conditions, and the apparent motion of heavenly bodies is unfamiliar. Accepted routines of navigation break down, and it is therefore necessary to devise new methods for the use of aircraft in polar regions. In addition, the weakness of the magnetic field in these regions forces us to modify or supplement the ordinary method of steering by magnetic compass. It cannot be too much emphasised, however, that the overriding criteria by which any technique must be examined are those which are common to navigation in all latitudes, and which are imposed by the nature of the aircraft itself. They arise chiefly owing to the speed and instability of the machine, and to the conditions of physical and mental strain in which the aerial navigator must work. Techniques and instruments must survive the three-fold test, applicable to any latitude: “Is the manipulative process handy enough to be done accurately by a navigator, tired or under nervous tension?”, “Is it simple enough for him to avoid errors under conditions of stress or mild anoxia?”, and “Is it fast enough?”

In the following notes an attempt has been made to summarise the main facts which anyone dealing with the literature and cartography of Svalbard would require to know in order to give a correct rendering of the place-names and to understand the changes in form which have taken place. The writer wishes to express his grateful thanks to Professor A. Sommerfelt for much assistance in connection with the linguistic aspects of the subject, and to Dr Anders K. Orvin, of the Norsk Polarinstitutt, Oslo, who kindly checked the whole manuscript.

[The South Shetland Islands were first sighted in February 1819 by William Smith, master and part-owner of the brig Williams of Blyth, and resighted in October of that year, when Smith landed and claimed the territory for the British Crown. On his arrival at Valparaiso, he and his ship were taken over by the British naval authorities and sent back in December 1819 with Edward Bransfield, Master, R.N., and a small naval staff to survey the new territory. During their absence on this duty, an account of the discovery by John Miers and a sketchmap signed by “Henry Foster, Midn H.M.S. Creole”, both dated January 1820, were sent home. The former was published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Vol. 3, No. 6, 1820, p. 367–80, and the latter is preserved among the original documents of the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty (Press mark S 90/3 Ael).

John Miers (1789–1879) was an English engineer who had gone out to Valparaiso in 1819 at the invitation of Lord Cochrane, then commanding the Chilean Navy, to help in developing that country's mineral resources. He was installing a plant at Conc6n for rolling copper plate for sheathing vessels, and had contracted with Smith for the transport of mining machinery from Valparaiso to Concón in the Williams, when Captain Sheriff, the Senior British Naval Officer at Valparaiso, decided to charter the Williams and to send Bransfield to the Antarctic.

Early in 1945 a rumour was spreading round that a film was to be made of Scott's Last Expedition, and the reaction among the “survivors”—as the press chooses to call us—was interesting. It was, almost universally, one of dismay and even antagonism. The arguments against it were varied. The story was already sufficiently told; it was out-of-date; to film it would be an invasion of privacy, and so on and so forth.

In early 1945, having had no previous experience of dogs or dog-driving, I was given charge of twenty-five huskies at the Hope Bay base of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey. These dogs were purchased in Labrador by Surg.-Cdr. E. W. Bingham, R.N., and Capt. N. B. Marshall in the autumn of 1944, and were transported to the Antarctic via England. Every man develops his own methods and personal preferences for animal management, and there is a welter of conflicting advice and testimony. In such circumstances it is best for the absolute novice to select the system of one acknowledged expert and adhere to it rigidly.

Cryolite is a rare mineral which is only mined in Greenland and is one of the most important assets in- Greenland economy. It is grey-white and translucent, almost like ice when wet, a fluoride of sodium and aluminium with the chemical formula Na3AlF6. The only commercial source is at Ivigtut in south-west Greenland, whilst the only two other known occurrences—at Pikes Peak, Colorado, and Miass in the Urals—are both small and impure. Lately, however, the Russians have claimed that the geological structure of Kol'ski Poluostrov (Kola Peninsula) would indicate the likelihood of cryolite being found there, and there are also reports of a mine in active production in East Siberia on the Manchurian border.

The Antartic continent has been in the limelight during the past year, and it is well known that several countries are claiming parts of the area, which unfortunately overlap. Possessions belonging to Great Britain, but at present disputed, are all islands and territories lying between longitudes 20°and 50° W., south of latitudes 58° S. The islands enclosed by these boundaries are Dependencies of the Falkland Islands consisting of many islands and part the Antartic Continent. South Georgia, the South Orkney Islands, Graham Land, the South Shetland Islands, the South Sandwich Islands, Alexander I Land and part of Coats Land lie within this area, which amounts in all to about three million square miles, and the territories, portions of which are as yet unexplored, extend down to the South Pole. Great Britain permanently occupies the Dependencies, carrying on a whaling industry and scientific research. In addition the Argentine Government has a meteorological station on Laurie Island in the South Orkneys. This was established in 1904 at the request of Dr W. S. Bruce, leader of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, who had built the station two years earlier. Since 1904 it has been continually manned by meteorologists sent out each year from Argentina. The original party had a post office, the first to appear in Antarctica. This and the more recent ones set up under British administration are marked on the accompanying map. Owing to the impermanence of the population of this part of the world they are naturally not all open continuously.

The importance of Australia taking an active interest in her Antarctic Dependencies was strongly urged by Sir Douglas Mawson for several years before the war. Support by the government of the day was evidenced by the fact that the Wyatt Earp was purchased from Lincoln Ellsworth after his return from the Antarctic in 1939, the express intention being to use her for further Antarctic operations. No firm plans, however, were made, and with the gathering war clouds in Europe the idea of an Australian expedition to the Antarctic was temporarily deferred.

Between 1939 and 1945, plans were afoot in the Union of South Africa for the establishment of meteorological stations on Gough Island in the South Atlantic, and on one of the Prince Edward Islands in the southern Indian Ocean. Shortage of shipping and staff caused these plans to be shelved in 1945. In 1947, Field-Marshal Smuts, who was then Prime Minister of the Union, decided to annex the Prince Edward Islands without delay. These islands, which consist of Marion Island and the smaller Prince Edward Island, are situated in approximately lat. 47° S., long. 38° E., half-way between South Africa and Antarctica, and have always been regarded as British, although no records of any sort of annexation ceremony can be traced.

In December 1947, therefore, the frigate H.M.S.A.S. Transvaal recalled her crew from Christmas leave and sailed south. Bad weather delayed a landing for several days, but eventually, on 29 December 1947, the commanding officer of the Transvaal landed on a rocky beach on the eastern side of Marion Island and hoisted the South African flag.

Polar research is significant to glaciologists first because real inland ice is found only in the polar regions, and secondly because most of the glaciers there belongto a distinct geophysical type. It is therefore remarkable that the snow, iceand glaciers of these regions only recently became objects of interest and study.

The Grímsvötn area in the Western part of Vatnajökull and the Katla area in the south-eastern part of Mýrdalsjökull in southern Iceland are of special interest because of active subglacial vulcanism. In recent times eruptions have occured periodically in Grímsvötn at intervals of about ten years, the latest taking place in 1922 and 1934. In Mýrdalsjökull, Katla has etupted twice every century since 1580, the latest eruption occurring in 1918. Simultaneously, with the first phase of the eruptions, great quantities of water, in amounts approaching 10 cu.km., are liberated from the glaciers. This phenomenon is named jökulhlaup in Iceland. In the period between eruptions the craters are covered by the glacier, and little evidence of vulcanism can be seen. Since 1934 a continuous observation of the Grimsvotn area has been carried out, and since 1943 the Katla area has been included in the programme. Below is given a much abbreviated historical summary of what observations have been made and by whom:

The discovery of Heard Island (lat. 53°; 10′ S., long. 73°; 35′ E.) has usually been attributed to Capt. John J. Heard of the American barque Oriental, who sighted the island on 25 November 1853 during a voyage from Boston to Melbourne. The relevant passage from Captain Heard's log book has been published by the American Geographical Society. He did not get nearer than twenty miles and mentions only one island, which can definitely be identified with Heard. Satisfactory evidence, however, has been found which shows that Heard Island was first sighted by the British sealer Peter Kemp, Master of the brig Magnet, on 27 November 1833. Kemp's discovery apparently remained unpublished, and his journal has been lost. The only surviving evidence of his voyage is a track chart preserved in the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty.

Polar explorers are necessarily men of many parts, but even among that fraternity Admiral Sir Edward Augustus Inglefield seems to have commanded a particularly wide range of talents. Apart from his seamanship, he possessed artistic and mechanical accomplishments. He was the inventor of the hydraulic steering gear and of the “Inglefield anchor”; he wrote several pamphlets on naval subjects including one on terrestrial magnetism; the distinction of his paintings, of which several were exhibited at a naval exhibition at Chelsea in 1891 and some at the Royal Academy, is evident from the water-colour of the yacht Isabel in Arctic setting reproduced with this article. He was a gardener, a collector of old glass, and a graceful after-dinner speaker.