Following directly on the voyages of Captain Cook, who had been killed at Hawaii in 1779, there was a growing interest in the search for a North-West Passage. Although it must have been apparent at an early date that no practicable trade route would be discovered, interest in this geographical feature of the world was not only sustained, but grew right up until the middle of last century. During the Napoleonic Wars, as in the wars of our own times, polar exploration had suffered. With a return to the more humdrum conditions of peace, it was revived with redoubled vigour, reaching a climax in the remarkable series of searched following the disappearance of Her Majesty's Ships Erebus and Terror under Captain Sir John Franklin.

The study of glaciers may be divided into two branches: (1) the study of the physical properties of glacier ice, firn, and snow; (2) the investigation of the glacier's regime and its meteorological causes. The first branch comprises the thermal and crystallographic conditions of the ice, firn and snow of glaciers, and their transitional forms; also the plasticity, movement, erosion, etc. of glaciers. The second branch is concerned with quantitative determinations of accumulation, ablation and the total regime of glaciers, and with the meteorological causes affecting them. This second branch also includes the reactions of different types of glaciers to changes in their regime.

The following notes and accompanying map have resulted from an attempt to devise a regional classification for the Institute's increasing collection of reports, maps and other documentary material dealing with northern Russia. Changes in the position and function of administrative boundaries present a special cartographic problem when they are of such bewildering frequency, for the dynamism inherent in the Soviet administrative structure since its inception in 1917 has not yet shown any signs of diminishing. While much of the available material can conveniently be classified under the headings of the major administrative regions existing at any particular date, the writer must admit that he is still not much nearer to a satisfactory solution of the original problem which prompted the inquiry.

Dr Mill's well-known collection of Antarctic books is without doubt the most extensive and interesting collection of Antarctic books in Britain. The most important volumes reached Cambridge in 1939, but on account of the war the main part of the library remained at Dr Mill's home at Dormans Park. These have now arrived at the Institute and the collection has been placed on the shelves.