In the summer of 1938 the Hermann-Göring-Stiftung [Hermann Göring Foundation], located at the Reichsjägerhof Riddagshausen near Braunschweig, dispatched a two man expedition to west Greenland, primarily in order to capture gyrfalcons. Although nowhere stated in the expedition account, the aim appears to have been to acclimatise the birds to a German environment for the purpose of falconry. Five birds were captured and transported to Germany, four juveniles from a nest near Godhavn and an adult bird from near Uummannaq. After a brief sojourn at Riddagshausen the birds were transferred to Goldhöhe (Zlaté návr_í) in the Riesengebirge (Krkono_e) as being a more appropriate environment. The results of the experiment and the fate of the birds are not stated in the expedition account. Secondary aims of the expedition were geological, meteorological and botanical investigations and bird banding.

A concise account of exotic terrestrial mammals known to have been introduced in Antarctica and the 19 peri-Antarctic islands is provided. This includes the entire region currently relevant to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. Of the 24 introduced species 10 are extant at one or more locations in 2011. Some species have had a widespread distribution and others are represented by one, or a few, individuals. The majority arrived as deliberate introductions but that of some was adventitious. Details of their dates of introduction, current status, and indications of environmental effects, are tabulated. Current eradication programmes are noted.

Subsequent to this paper (Headland 2011) being submitted for publication, programmes to eradicate exotic mammals on Macquarie Island and South Georgia have made substantial progress.

Antarctica is a rugged, austere, and yet stunningly beautiful continent with charismatic fauna including several species of penguins, whales, and seals. Mass media, writings from the early explorers, and modern film all describe firsthand experiences as delightful, beautiful, challenging, humbling, and even awe-inspiring. This dramatic allure of Antarctica now fuels one of the fastest growing tourism markets in the world with over 30,000 visitors annually traveling to the continent. Despite the fact that Antarctic tourism has occurred for over 30 years, little research has investigated the psychological and affective influence of these immersive tourism experiences in the Antarctic environment. This study explored visitors' affective judgments regarding their Antarctic tourism experience. An onsite post experience survey was administered to Antarctic tourists to investigate their satisfaction with a range of tour attributes. In addition, the researchers used the open-ended question, “How did this Antarctic experience affect you?” to explore tourists’ affective response to their interaction with the Antarctic tourism environment. These open ended responses were coded using a priori themes generated from Kellert's environmental values typology. Additionally, each response was analysed for the presence of an awe experience. Further analysis revealed that tourists described five sub-dimensions of an ‘awe’ experience (nature-human relationship, spiritual connection, transformative experience, goal clarification, and sense of feeling humbled), with many individuals experiencing multiple dimensions of awe. Consequently, this analysis reveals that the impact of an Antarctic tour experience is powerful, rich, and extremely complex.

On the Belgica expedition (1897–1899), Dr F.A. Cook described a disease that he called ‘polar anaemia’ and on this expedition it affected most of the expedition members and caused one death. The symptoms were shortness of breath, abnormalities of the pulse and oedema (swelling of the legs) and the disease was clearly cardiac failure. During the heroic age of Antarctic exploration a similar disease affected at least eight other expeditions causing five other deaths. This disease was very similar (and probably identical) to a disease affecting (mostly) Scandinavian seamen and called ‘ship beri-beri’. Both diseases were almost certainly what is now called wet beri-beri due to thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency though most sufferers were probably also vitamin C deficient and some may have had both beri-beri and scurvy. It may have been exacerbated by invalid diets. This paper describes the disease and how it was considered and treated at the time.

The Arctic region is widely recognised to be one of the most sensitive to climate change. Here, the consequences of current trends will be felt most keenly; ice cap melting and thinning and the consequent implications for sea level rise and loss of habitat may be profound. Yet these regions remain amongst the most poorly chronicled. Recent advances in satellite monitoring and instrumental observations now provide valuable information, but this record extends over little more than half a century. For earlier times, the record is, at best, patchy and inconsistent. This is not, however, to imply that all such data and information have been recognised and fully exploited. This is far from the case and this paper draws attention to largely overlooked documentary sources that can extend our knowledge of the far North Atlantic climate back to the late eighteenth century. These documents consist of the logbooks of sailing ships navigating those hazardous waters in the late eighteenth and early- to mid-nineteenth centuries.

This paper focuses specifically on those logbooks kept on board Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) ships on their regular annual voyages between the UK and Hudson's Bay between 1760 and 1870. The information they contain is shown to be detailed, reliable and of unique character for the period and place. The style and form of presentation of the logbooks is reviewed and particularly those aspects that deal with the daily meteorological information they contain. Attention is also drawn to the high degree of homogeneity found in the logbooks in terms of presentation and methods of preparation, rendering them directly and helpfully comparable one with another. A specific example is offered of the benefits of using these data and it is proposed that this set of logbooks, when taken collectively and, embracing as it does over a century from 1750 provides a matchless, substantial and uniformly reliable source of oceanic weather information for the far North Atlantic for what can be regarded as the ‘pre-instrumental’ period (before 1850).

The introduction of the ‘western diet’ marked a decline in omega–3 fatty acids rich foods and a concurrent increase in saturated and omega–6 fatty acids that persists today. Historically, circumpolar people have had a low incidence of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease and this has been largely attributed to polyphenolic compounds and omega–3 fatty acids offered from subsistence foods. In this report, we studied sled dogs as an Arctic sentinel species for monitoring the effect of a changing diet on lipid profiles along the Yukon River. Subsistence fed village sled dogs along the Yukon River, maintained largely on salmon were compared with a control kennel maintained on commercial food. Profiles showed higher levels for long chain omega–3 fatty acids in village subsistence fed dogs compared to control dogs and an opposite trend for omega–6 fatty acids, establishing baseline levels for follow up studies. A comparison with data for previously published mercury levels from the same cohort of dogs revealed a positive correlation with alpha–linolenic fatty acid and a negative correlation with linoleic fatty acid. Food and nutritional security is a concern in the Arctic as the impacts of climate change and transport of contaminants become obvious. This study supports not only the nutritional value of a subsistence diet but also the utility of sled dogs as a sentinel for human dietary change.

During January 1911 two separate expeditions came ashore within ten days of each other in Antarctica. Both were hoping to achieve the South Pole. Robert Falcon Scott's decision to establish his British Antarctic Expedition's winter quarters on Ross Island close to routes explored on his first Antarctic expedition was signalled in advance. Scott had received notification of the Norwegian Roald Amundsen's intention to head for Antarctica but did not know where he planned to land. At 00.05 am on 4 February 1911 the British expedition's vessel Terra Nova unexpectedly came across Amundsen's Fram moored to the ice edge in the Bay of Whales. 14 hours later Terra Nova departed, taking news of Amundsen's location and plans, to deliver to Scott. For those on Terra Nova who kept diaries, the event filled days surrounding the encounter spurred the recording of thoughts, emotions and conversations as well as descriptions: eye witness accounts, allowing us to gain an appreciation of the situation as it was. This material from the British side, together with letters, and diary entries from earlier in the voyage, reveals a more complex account than do expedition narratives published subsequently by several of the participants. Terra Nova's passage along the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf in February 1911 had, in fact, come close to being cancelled. Terra Nova's commander as instructed by Scott was heading for Balloon Bight on 3 February, not the Bay of Whales. Even the ship's departure after a short stay, with everyone still on board, became a matter for intense debate. In addition, the generally very positive attitude of the British towards the Norwegians as expressed in diaries hardened subsequently, at least for some. This paper's focus is on the responses of those on Terra Nova to the encounter. Those of the Norwegians are being explored by other researchers.

The Edge Anglican church (originally St Alban's) in the northern Hobart suburb of Claremont has above its main altar a triptych stained glass window, a memorial to Robert Falcon Scott R.N. New information suggests that the designer/manufacturer was Auguste Fischer of Melbourne, a close associate of the church's architect, Alan Cameron Walker of Hobart. The window was promised by Mrs Edith Knight at the laying of the foundation stone of the church in July 1913, five months after Scott's death became known to the world. Lady Ellison-Macartney attended the ceremony. She was Scott's sister and wife of the recently appointed governor of Tasmania, Sir William Ellison-Macartney. Other members of Scott's family were also living in Hobart at the time. The Ellison-Macartneys and their daughter Esther attended the dedication of the window on 17 October 1915. Admiral E.R.G.R. Evans, second in command of Scott's expedition, spoke to The Royal Society of Tasmania on 29 March 1930, on the topic of Scott's last Antarctic venture.

Further progress is reported concerning the preservation of Belgica, currently a wreck in Norwegian waters.

In addition to the visits to Beechey Island referenced in my recent article (Hansen 2010), M'Dougall also describes his visit to Beechey Island (in Resolute with De Bray) from Tuesday 10 August 1852 (mistakenly given as 11 August) to Sunday, 15 August (M'Dougall 1857: 78–87). He gives his version of the inscriptions of the three Franklin expedition headboards. While he follows the mistaken placement order as in Osborn and The Illustrated London News of 4 October 1851 (Osborn 1865: 90; The Illustrated London News 1851b), comparison of the inscriptions with both Kane (Kane 1854: 163) and the photo of the Torrington headboard in Powell (Powell 2006: 330, Fig. 10) now lead me to conclude that M'Dougall's rather than Kane's version of the Franklin headboards inscriptions are probably the most accurate of the contemporary accounts.

This book (Schwarzenbach 2011) has a strange and remarkable history, which explains the fact that it has now been published in 2011, 58 years after the fieldwork on the project that was undertaken in the summer of 1953.

Those readers of Polar Record who are familiar with the narratives of Scott, Shackleton and Mawson during the ‘heroic age’ of Antarctic exploration, will have come across a sledging food called ‘plasmon’. Here, therefore, for their amusement is an outside page of an advertisement for that product, probably of the 1890's or early 1900's (Fig. 1). It measures 12 × 9 inches. Only the front and back pages form the advertisement which indicates on the back page that plasmon is available from all groceries and that a teaspoon a day ‘will prove a great aid to health and strength’. The centre pages carry the words and music of a song entitled ‘Humpty and Dumpty’ said to have been sung by Miss Ellaline Terriss (1871–1971), the well known, and long lived, actress and singer.

During the explorations of Pourquoi-Pas?, commanded by Jean Baptiste Charcot, in the Southern Ocean in the period 1908–1910, Ensign R.-E. Godfroy collected, between latitudes 64°09'S and 70°05'S, eleven samples of air, according to instructions given by Muntz and Luné (1911) for measuring the concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere. The samples were later analysed in the laboratories of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, Paris using basically the same methods as for the samples collected by the French First Polar Year expedition 1882–1883 (Baker 2009). The maximum concentration of CO2 was 255 ppm, the minimum 145 ppm (the sample taken at sea at 69°30'S) and the mean 205 ppm. The average of the concentrations in the samples made by the French first IPY expedition at Bahia Orange was 256ppm and the minimum was 231 ppm.

This note considers some of the WikiLeaks Arctic cables, and their possible implications for how we might understand the framing of the region. What matters is not so much the content of the leaked cables but rather the way in which their release stirred up debate about the underlying behaviour and motivation of interested parties, especially the Arctic Ocean coastal states. Their existence in the public domain usefully highlights the potential role for new knowledge networks and actors in the www era.

James Croll (1821–1890) was a Scottish scientist who made major, although still largely unrecognised, contributions to the theory of the effects of variations in the Earth's orbit on the global climate. He was the first to identify the importance of positive feedbacks in the climate system, especially the ice-albedo feedback, and he placed the astrochronological method on a sound footing. Croll's theory was the first to predict multiple ice ages. However, it was unable to place the end of the most recent glaciation more recently than 80,000 years ago, and as evidence accumulated throughout the 19th century for a much more recent date than this Croll's theory fell into neglect. We argue that this was particularly unfortunate since several of his key ideas were forgotten, and that this has delayed the development of the orbital theory of paleoclimate.

Willi Dansgaard, a great pioneer of climate research, died on 8 January 2011 at the age of 88. He was born on 30 August 1922 and grew up in the centre of Copenhagen where his parents had an engraving shop. He finished his university degree in physics, mathematics and astronomy in 1947 with a gold medal award for a thesis on X-ray dosimetry at the Biophysics Laboratory of the University of Copenhagen. From 1947 to 1951 he was employed by the Danish Meteorological Institute where he worked in geomagnetism and meteorology. In 1947–1948 he spent a year at the geomagnetic observatory in Qeqertarsuaq, Greenland, and this led to a life long affection for that country.

John Bryan Heaney, who died in November 2010 aged 79, was an outstanding field surveyor who made a major contribution to the mapping of South Georgia and created the first accurate map of Gough Island.