Most of the major problems of Arctic geography have been solved, and there are now few stretches of coastline which have not been at least roughly mapped. In the Antarctic there are still huge blank spaces on the map, but even there the kind of rough and ready maps that were made by early explorers would now be scarcely adequate. A modern polar survey must be much more accurate and comprehensive if it is to be worth while and have any permanent value, and it therefore takes up rather more of the time which used to be almost entirely devoted to travel. On the other hand, modern inventions such as the light but accurate eyepiece reading theodolite, the camera, and the aeroplane, have made available very much more rapid methods of survey than were possible even twenty years ago.

The Polar Record, No. 17, January 1939

Page 67, line 13. For Valdez anchorage read Valdez, Anchorage.

This work was commenced in 1927 and has been continued ever since without interruption. Every spring the Institute has sent an expedition to Greenland with the ordinary line steamers. In Greenland, transport to the working places proceeds by means of four fast motor-boats specially built for this work. They are very suitable for use in the numerous rocky fjords and sufficiently large to traverse the long distances from one end of the field of operations to the other. The frequent transfer of the surveyors from one station to another is not the least of the difficulties which the organisation of the survey work in Greenland presents. The distance run by a survey boat during a summer has often exceeded 3500 nautical miles and even reached 5600 miles. There are wireless transmitters and receivers on each boat in order to maintain communication between the different survey parties. Besides the four larger boats, the survey has the use of ten smaller boats for sailing in sheltered waters.

The choice of footwear is still one of the most outstanding problems which confront a traveller in the polar regions. Differences of opinion have arisen for various reasons, but perhaps the most common one is lack of experience of the available types. Personal views are influenced by the nature of the journeys already undertaken, the climatic conditions and the types of country experienced, whether the individual has had to repair his own footwear or has had native help, whether he has good circulation, the question of whether his feet are subject to excessive perspiration, and whether he has any tendency to flat-footedness, etc. It must also be remembered that a man who has used a particular kind of footwear in unsuitable conditions or without proper care tends to condemn that kind as being useless in all circumstances.