Central North Greenland, an uninhabited and rarely visited region bordering the Arctic Ocean, supports arctic hare, collared lemming, wolf, arctic fox, polar bear, stoat, ringed seal and musk ox. Their distribution and abundance were noted during Geological Survey of Greenland expeditions in 1984–85, which visited virtually all land areas in the region, including nunataks and islands. Bones of reindeer, bearded seal and narwhal were also found. Ringed seal and reindeer are known to have been present in the region by the early Holocene.

On 13 June 1988 a US party including Alaskan Natives and business, political and media representatives flew from Nome, Alaska to Provideniya, Siberia, on a ‘friendship flight’ arranged by the State of Alaska and Soviet authorities. In August of the same year MV Society Explorer, a US-operated cruise ship, made a 20-hour port call in Provideniya. On 7 September the Soviet research vessel Dmitri Laptev paid a return visit from Provideniyato Nome with a party of Yupik natives and Soviet officials. These visits represent the first formal contacts between neighbouring communities across Bering Strait for over 40 years.

Although at the time the zoological establishment had little interest in the smaller planktonic and benthic marine invertebrates, James Ross assisted by Joseph Hooker amassed a large collection of these animals during the Erebus and Terror voyage of 1839–43. These samples perished withoutRoss having carried out his intention of working on them. The only knownmaterial relating to them that survives today consists of a small number of drawings by Hooker in the British Museum (Natural History). These are evidently the remnants of a much larger collection which became dispersed among the experts preparing Challenger reports from 1876 onwards. Undoubtedly Ross and Hooker discovered many new species and genera (an example discussed being an apparently undescribed pycnogonid) which were left undescribed. Their finding of animal life at depths below 300 fathoms was not properly publicized so that Forbes' doctrine of the absence of life in the depths of the sea was able to persist for several more decades.

In 1956 the United States government allowed the Territory (now State) of Alaska to select 404,695 hectares of land to provide specifically for mental health services for Alaskans. State legislatures have since tried to place this land into private ownership because of the ‘highest and best use principle’ of land management. ‘Strict usage principle’ opponents have countered with legal action, the result of which is to place the land in a status where it serves neither proponent groups. The question raised by this piece of land history is whether, in a federalism such as the United States, it is possible to use land to serve dedicated social needs.

The steamship Telefon, an eight-year-old steel freighter used for carrying cargos to the Antarctic whaling ships of Chr. Christensen, struck a reef at the entrance to Admiralty Bay, South Shetland Islands, on 26 December 1908. Salvaged through the enterprise of Capt A. A. Andresen, of the Sociedad Ballenera de Magellanes, she was grounded in Port Foster, Deception Island, and eventually refloated and repaired to continue working with the whaling fleet.

The struggle between Antarctic Treaty Parties and their UN critics regarding the management of Antarctica was resumed in November 1988 when, for the sixth successive year, the United Nations discussed the 'Question of Antarctica'. This year the UN adopted two further resolutions reaffirming demands of 1987 for wider participation in the minerals negotiations, the involvement of the UN Secretary-General in Antarctic Treaty System operations, and the exclusion of South Africa from treaty meetings. The Treaty Parties seem unlikely to heed these resolutions. Reforms within the Treaty System are the most likely means of progress for the critics, althoough Australia's critique of the Minerals Convention has introduced an element of uncertainty.

Samples from 73 pieces of non-structural driftwood on Heard Island (53°06′S, 73°30′E) were identified to genus or species. Thirty-one belonged to South American species of Nothofagus. The remainder, consisting mostly of conifers especially Picea and Larix, probably came from ships' cargoes. The assemblage is similar to those reported, from smaller samples, on other southern islands. Other items of flotsam, including fishing buoys and drift-cards, are also reported from Heard Island. The significance of driftwood transport from South America to the island in accounting for long-distance dispersal of terrestrial and intertidal organisms is discussed.

This article seeks to explain the doctrine concerning sovereignty in Antarctica articulated by Charles E. Hughes, a former US Secretary of State, and to account for its persistence in underpinning US Antarctic policy. The doctrine was part of the New Imperialism — the surge of colonial expansion and spheres of influence that occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. US imperialism sought to establish an ‘open door’ international order to exploit America's growing economic power; the Hughes doctrine extended this policy into Antarctica, preserving US access to all of the region by denying recognition of claims by other countries.

Particulate matter collected at a single station in waters off the ice shelf of Prinsesse Astrid Kyst (70°S, 11°E), Antarctica, during the austral summer January–February 1986 was analyzed for organic content. Phytoplankton biomass represented by chlorophyll α varied from 0.051 to 3.1 μg dm-3. Values for constituent fractions ranged as follows: adenosine triphosphate 0.33 to 1.81 μg dm-3, particulate organic carbon 305 to 1850 μg dm-3, particulate carbohydrates 8 to 176 μg dm-3, particulate proteins 22 to 132 μg dm-3 and particulate lipids 8 to 209 μg dm-3. Large variation in values suggested patchy distribution. The likely presence of degraded carbon argues in favour of an active microbial community in these waters

Between 15 and 29 March 1987 the Labrador Ice Margin Experiment(LIMEX), a major international field experiment, took place in the Grand Banks region of the Labrador Sea, off the New found land coast. First in a series of experiments to be conducted at the southern ice margin during early spring, the period of maximum ice extent, LIMEX'87 addressed questions on physical properties of the environment and the role of remotely sensed data, particularly microwave data, in providing information for monitoring and forecasting air-sea-ice properties and dynamics.

In August–September 1987 a group of geophysicists, led by M. Ander of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and M. Zumberge of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, performed a geophysical experiment to determine the value of the gravitational constant, G. Using the DYE-3 borehole on the Greenland ice cap, the experiment was intended to provide evidence concerning possible scale variations in G, and thus for non-Newtonian gravity. This report describes the background to the experiment and the radio echo-sounding survey carried out to provide terrain corrections for the gravity model. The experiment showed values of G differing from laboratory determinations by margins which considerably exceed experimental error.

During public hearings before the Norman Wells Project began, fears were expressed that the project would adversely affect consumption of country food. This note examines consumption of country food by native residents living in four communities in the impact zone of the project The proportion of country food in their diet did not diminish over its construction period, and may have increased slightly, mainly because residents maintained normal harvesting despite handicaps caused by the project. Other mitigating factors were that most construction occurred at a predominately non-native centre (Norman Wells), virtually no natives from the three native communities were employed full-time for the duration of the project, and most of their hunting area was well outside the pipeline impact zone.

The development, background and nature of the Greenland model of home rule are discussed. Over a ten-year period this model has proved pragmatic and worked well, creating a high degree of autonomy and allowing considerable economic development. Contemporary problems and advantages are outlined and a draft strategy for the future is presented.

Wintering in the Antarctic has long been known to have at best a lethargic effect and at worst an occasional psychopathological effect. A review of journal entries, laboratory studies, independent observations, clinical reports and specific experimental projects shows some discrepancies about the type of impairment reported. The suggestion is that the results from various data gathering domains should be integrated, rather than offset against each other, and that climatic severity data be obtained. Then a fresh attempt should be made to resolve the matter by developing techniques for monitoring the customary levels of performance of subjects instead of those from specific testing sessions. Present indications are that wintering produces a hibernating effect — a generalised lowering of sensory/motor reactions that is appropriate for the geographical and psycho-sociological circumstances.