Canada and the USSR together possess most of the territory in the Northern Hemisphere underlain by permafrost or perennially frozen ground. As about one half of the land area of each country is affected, the permafrost region of the Soviet Union is 2½ times larger than that of Canada. Outside mountainous regions, permafrost extends southward in Canada to the southern tip of James Bay at lat 51° N (Brown, in press). Permafrost extends farther south in eastern Asia, however, and occurs in Outer Mongolia and Manchuria to about lat 47° N Fig 1) (Baranov, 1959; Nekrasov, 1962).

Since the first conception of a hovercraft by C. S. Cockerell in the early 1950s, and the completion of the first experimental full-scale machine (SR. N1) in 1959, the development of these vehicles has advanced to the stage of practical use.

The course of events of the volcanic activity in Surtsey and the adjacent area can be divided into seven main phases:

Submarine phase I

This phase probably started about 6 November 1963, in a fissure, 130 m deep, running N 35° E to S 35° W, in lat 63° 18′ 22″ N, long 20° 36′ 5″ W, 3 nautical miles west-south-west of Geirfuglasker, the southernmost of the Vestmannaeyjar (Fig. 1) The seismograph at Kirkjubæjarklaustur registered weak earthquakes in this area from 6 to 8 November. During the following week submarine action built up a narrow ridge, presumably mainly consisting of pillow lava, near the bottom of the sea floor, and an increasing amount of hyaloclastites as the ridge came nearer the surface.

For nearly two centuries Den Kongelige Grønlandske Handel (Royal Greenland Trade Department, or RGTD) has been responsible not only for transportation and supply in Greenland but also for the general development of production and of natural resources there. Before 1774, various private and chartered companies had been organized to supply Greenland and develop its natural resources, but they all failed because of the difficulties of operating in the Arctic. It then became evident that development of these regions would seldom, if ever, be profitable. It was also felt, however, that the economic well-being of the people could not be neglected, and consequently RGTD was established and vested with the responsibility of developing the country. This principle has remained unchanged throughout the years although Greenland has since achieved full and equal rights as a province of Denmark.

A number of recent publications in English (Borgstrom, 1961; Herman, 1964; Helin, 1964; Kravanja, 1964; Shparlinskiy, 1964) have dealt with aspects of the growth of Soviet fisheries since the Second World War. Some of these publications are written from inside the Soviet fishing industry, others by western fisheries specialists. There would be no advantage in covering the same ground again in detail. The object of this paper is to draw attention to certain features of the Soviet industry not very fully considered in the accounts just mentioned. Before this can be done, however, it will be necessary to sketch in, as background, enough indication of the growth to make the rest of the paper comprehensible.

This report is intended to summarize activities in radio echo sounding since the introductory paper which appeared in the Polar Record four years ago (Evans, 1963 a). The field work since that time is discussed in rough chronological order, with references to the sources of more detailed information and an assessment of the principal results.

Argument about whether or not continental drift has occurred has been continuous and inconclusive since drift was first advocated fifty years ago by scientists from a number of different disciplines. Recently, evidence has accumulated to establish beyond reasonable doubt that this drift has indeed occurred. In this paper I discuss some features of the drift, particularly those concerning the northern Atlantic Ocean. The investigations of geologists should now be turned from the question of whether drift has occurred, to the manner in which it has occurred.

The ionosphere is a thick mantle of partly ionized gas surrounding the earth at heights between 80 and 800 km. It was discovered about fifty years ago, and during the last decade has been studied intensively at observatories all over the world. These studies consist primarily of observing the characteristics of radio waves reflected from the ionosphere. Since waves of different frequencies are reflected at different heights, it is possible to determine how the electron density varies with height, up to the height of maximum density at about 300 km. Radio waves which pass this height, however, continue into space and are not reflected. Consequently very little direct information can be obtained from the ground about the characteristics and behaviour of the ionized region above 300 km.

[The list of officers and crew of HMS Investigator, 1850–53, contains the name “James Nelson, AB”. Recently J. W. Nelson, a descendant of Nelson's, brought to the Institute two copy-books containing accounts by him of the last voyage of Investigator, the discovery of the North West Passage and the return of the surviving members of the ship's company to England after the abandonment of the ship in the Bay of Mercy, Banks Island, in June 1853. Both accounts were obviously written carefully after the author's return, presumably from diary notes. The handwriting is neat copperplate with alterations in another hand. Little is known of the origins or later history of James Nelson, whose command of contemporary literary style and facility of expression must have been unusual in an AB of the period. His naval Certificate of Service is as follows:

The Space Disturbance Monitoring Station of the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences and Aeronomy is located on Elmendorf Air Force Base, near Anchorage, Alaska. The station was formerly the North Pacific Radio Warning Service of the Central Radio Propagation Laboratory, and as such served the government and civilian agencies which operated high frequency communication circuits in the North Pacific area. It was first opened in 1950, and since the military were prime users of the services, the location on Elmendorf Air Force Base was a natural selection.

“It was during this month of June, that Drs Mcllroy and Macklin transformed our snuggery into an operating theatre and amputated the frost-bitten toes of our youngest member, Blackborrow, who had been suffering severely and was a chronic cripple. Wild and I acted as hospital orderlies and maintained the temperature of the ‘theatre’ at 50°, by stoking-up the bogie fire with penguin skins. In the dense smoke, by the feeble glimmer of blubber lamps, Macklin administered the chloroform and Mcllroy performed the operation which saved Blackborrow's leg if not indeed his life.”

Whenever man is shipwrecked and takes to a lifeboat or a raft, crashes in an aircraft, or gets into trouble mountaineering or on an expedition, he requires help and rescue. Before any action can be taken by potential rescuers it must be known that a disaster has taken place. At present such knowledge is often acquired in a negative manner, by non-arrival at an expected destination or loss of communication contact. Even if positive information is received by a distress message, the exact location of the incident is often in doubt. Extensive air searches are then required before a rescuer can be guided to the spot.

The Arctic Research Laboratory (ARL) is a year-round, continuing, basic research facility, funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), US Department of Navy, and located in lat 71° 21'N, long 156° 46'W, near Point Barrow, on the Arctic coast of Alaska. It was established in 1947 not, as could be reasonably expected, only to further investigations of immediate and practical use to the Navy, but also to support work of purely general scientific interest. Scientists from other countries were also invited to make use of its facilities. ARL represents a laudable co-operation between government support and private scientific enterprise.

Plans for a long-term study of Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) in Spitsbergen were initiated in Norway in 1964. The programme is a joint operation between the University of Oslo and Norsk Polarinstitutt. It is divided in two-main projects:

1. Ecological investigations under T. Larsen, Institutt for Marin Biologi Avd A [Institute of Marine Biology AJ], University of Oslo.

2. Physiological investigations under N. A. Øritsland, Zoofysiologisk Institutt [Zoophysiological Institute], University of Oslo.

A third project, ecological and ornithological studies is under M. Norderhaug, Zoologisk Laboratorium [Zoological Laboratory], University of Oslo.

The preliminary plan for the biological programme in Spitsbergen was presented at the First International Scientific Meeting on the Polar Bear in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1965.

One of the biggest problems facing those who seek to exploit the natural riches of the north is the attraction and retention of a labour force. This problem is sometimes more intractable even than those posed more directly by the remoteness of the locality and the harshness of the environment. No easy or simple solution has been found, but it may be of interest to record some of the recent steps taken by the Soviet Government towards its solution.

Advance in science in Antarctica has been paralleled, and in many cases made possible, by the development of logistic support facilities. As early as 1959 the use of turbine-powered helicopters had been suggested for a United States programme in the Ellsworth Mountains, where the altitude and cold weather made the use of conventional piston-powered helicopters impractical. Turbine-powered helicopters were not available from the US Navy, and the use of civilian machines was turned down at the time. However, an investigation of machines suitable for polar work was conducted by the US Naval Support Force, Antarctica, and the development of the LC-130 air delivery system necessary to support helicopters in the continental interior of Antarctica continued.

McMurdo Sound is well known as an area comparatively free from fast ice during the middle and late summer. Although closed to its discoverer in February 1841 by contrary winds, pack ice and new ice (Ross, 1847), the sound provided easy access to high latitudes in January and February on at least ten occasions between 1902 and 1916. Since 1955, icebreakers have assisted shipping movements in November and December, and possibly helped in dispersing the winter fast ice by cutting wide channels from Cape Bird southward. However, northerly swells and south-easterly gales are sufficient in most years to disperse fast ice from the southern end of the sound by mid or late February (Heine, 1963).