For the purpose of this paper, northern Canada comprises all the territory north of lat 60° N. Included in this area of approximately 1500000 square miles are all of Yukon and Northwest Territories and small parts of Quebec and Labrador. Although the area is clearly defined by latitude, the subject matter of this paper also takes into account those developments farther south which have a direct effect upon the north.

Svalbard comprises the islands between longs 10 to 35° E and between lats 74 to 81° N. The largest of these islands is Vestpitsbergen, followed by Nordaustlandet, Edgeøya, Barentsøya and Bjørnøya. The archipelago lies in the northwestern part of the Barents-Kara shelf. To south and east the continental shelf is covered by the shallow waters of the Barents Sea, whilst to the north and west the shelf falls away rapidly into the Arctic Basin and the Greenland Sea.

The radiation hazards to humans in certain northern regions, and to reindeer, caribou and moose, due to radioactive materials from fallout in their diets, have been discussed recently in numerous publications. The following factors make this problem of particular interest:

i. The peculiarity of lichens to absorb and retain larger quantities of radioactive fallout than other plants. This peculiarity of lichens is exemplified by some measurements of Paakkiola and Miettinen made during 1960 and 1961. They found that the strontium-90 content of lichens in northern Finland varied between 350 and 4500 SU, whereas for grass and other plants from the same area the figures varied between 43 and 273 SU.

The World Meteorological Organization International Ice Nomenclature, though it has not yet been officially published by the international agency, is in fact in general use in North America, and has been used by the Canadian ice reporting services since January 1962. As a result of this experience with the practical application of the terminology, and of a total of about ten years of operational ice reporting, Canadian users have compiled a list of proposed amendments, which has been officially submitted to WMO for consideration by the Maritime Commission. The proposal was co-ordinated through the Working Group on Ice Navigable Waters of the Canadian Committee on Oceanography, which represents virtually all Canadian agencies and individuals directly involved in ice operations and research. It thus reflects a fairly broad spectrum of Canadian opinion on the subject. The proposals are dealt with under four general headings: “Fast ice terms”, “Age categories”, “Topography”, and “Other amendments”. Many of these amendments are of a minor nature and it is not proposed to itemize them here. In view of the fact, however, that the processes of WMO are of necessity rather slow, it was felt that there might be some value in publishing the proposals in the age-category section, which are considered to be the most important, for the information and possibly discussion of those interested.

The Canadian proposals outlined by Miss Dunbar (antea, p 717–22) have the great advantage of having grown out of several years' practical application of the WMO International Ice Nomenclature. The proposals are made not only out of a desire to refine concepts and lessen ambiguity as knowledge grows, but also out of a need for reorganization called for by practical considerations. This is the right way for a terminology to develop.

Beauchêne Island was visited by HMS Protector on 22 December 1962, when the coastline was delineated by radar, and vertical photographs taken from a helicopter. A party landed by boat on the east coast, near to the southern end of the island, and walked about much of the coastline but failed to penetrate far into the tussock grass covering the interior. On this occasion no trained naturalist was in the party, but on two later visits by Protector, on 2 December 1963 and 6 December 1964, the author was fortunate in being present and in landing.