Institute News Source: Arctic, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Jul., 1953), pp. 163-164 Published by: Arctic Institute of North America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40506567 . Accessed: 13/06/2014 11:39 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Arctic Institute of North America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Arctic. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 62.122.72.154 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 11:39:30 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Transcript
Institute NewsSource: Arctic, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Jul., 1953), pp. 163-164Published by: Arctic Institute of North AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40506567 .
Accessed: 13/06/2014 11:39
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Arctic Institute of North America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Arctic.
http://www.jstor.org
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On July 15 P. D. Baird, leader of the Institute's Baffin Island expedition, sent out a message that W. R. B. Battle had been drowned in a glacial stream on July 13. At the time, Battle, who was the glaciologist on the expedition, was returning alone from a walk in the Pang- nirtung Pass area near Base Camp B. His body was found after a search lasting one-and-one-half days, and has since been buried on the moraine above Sum- mit Lake.
W. R. B. Battle came out from Eng- land in 1952 to take up the Senior Fellowship under the McGill University- Arctic Institute Carnegie Program. His fellowship had been renewed for the year 1953-4.
A short note follows on the work of the Baffin expedition.
Baffin expedition 1953 This year the Institute has sent a party
led by P. D. Baird, Director of the Montreal Office, to the Cumberland Peninsula of Baffin Island. As in the 1950 Baffin expedition, the Swiss Founda- tion for Alpine Research is cooperating and has sent four men to take part in the expedition.
The region being studied this year is some 300 miles southeast of the Barnes Icecap, explored three years ago. Glaci- ological and geomorphological work is being carried out on the Penny Highland ice cap and in the Pangnirtung Pass area. Botanical and zoological studies will mainly be made in the Pass area. At the same time Professor V. C. Wynne- Edwards, who has also received a grant from the Institute, is carrying out orni- thological studies around the coast of the Cumberland Peninsula.
The party of thirteen scientists left Dorval airport, Montreal, at 9.30 a.m. on
May 12, flying in an R.C.A.F. North Star aircraft to Frobisher. They reached Frobisher at 20.00 hours, where the chartered Norseman aircraft was await- ing them. By May 13 all members of the expedition and their equipment had been flown from Frobisher. The follow- ing two days were spent sorting and re- packing stores, shipped up last summer, for inland flights. On May 16 Base Camp B, 1,300 feet, was established by aircraft at the northeast corner of Sum- mit Lake, 66°40N., 65 °08W. Later in the day Camp Al, 6,700 feet, was estab- lished on the Penny Highland ice cap at66°59N.,65°35W.
Foggy weather hindered flying opera- tions until May 20 when Camp A2, 6,000 feet, was established at 66°50N., 65°15W. The same day Watson (zoolo- gist) and Kidd (geologist) were flown to Padloping for two weeks sledging in that area. On May 23, when weather permitted, additional flights were made to camps B and A2, and J. Thomson travelled by dog team to cache a canoe at the head of Pangnirtung Pass. Hugh Thompson (geomorphologist) left by dog team on May 25 for the head of Pangnirtung Fiord to make soundings before walking back to base. The Norse- man aircraft returned to Churchill on May 26.
On June 14 a message was received that the Biological Camp had been set up in Pangnirtung Pass at 66°45N., 64°41W., and that Watson and Kidd had arrived at this camp after a success- ful visit in the Padloping area and "a hard slog over to Pangnirtung Pass". The Swiss glaciologists had finished their seismic work at Camp A2, where 100 feet of firn was found on 600 feet of ice, and had moved to Camp A3 at 66°48N., 65 °04W. on foot carrying their equip- ment. There was a blizzard in the vicin- ity of Al on June 14 which compelled
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P. D. Baird to spend a night in an igloo about 600 yards away from the camp. The maximum temperature experienced up to June 14 at Camp Al was 26°F and the minimum -13°F.
Gifts to the Institute The Librarian would like gratefully
to acknowledge donations to the Institute
Library from the following friends and Associates: Mr. Louis Bailey, Mr. Gerald Birks, and Mrs. R. A. Davies.
Mr. Ross Hennigar has kindly donated a caribou-skin parka to the Museum.
The Institute would also like to express its appreciation of a display on loan to the Museum from the Iron Ore Company of Canada.
NORTHERN NEWS
Award of Royal Geographical Society's gold medals for 1952
The Royal Geographical Society has announced that Her Majesty the Queen has approved the award of The Found- er's Medal to P. D. Baird, Director of the Montreal Office of the Arctic Insti- tute of North America, for explorations in the Canadian Arctic, and The Patron's Medal to Count Eigil Knuth, leader of the Danish expedition to Peary Land 1948-50, for explorations in northern Greenland and for his contributions to Eskimo archaeology.
Banks Island party Early in May, T. H. Manning, accom-
panied by Capt. I. M. Sparrow of the Royal Engineers, England, left Edmon- ton by R.C.A.F. aircraft for Sachs Har- bour, Banks Island, to continue a coastal survey of the island for the Defence Research Board of Canada. Last sum- mer Mr. Manning, accompanied by Andrew Macpherson, had begun the survey by canoe along the west and north coasts. At Castel Bay they were forced by an early freeze-up to leave their canoe and return overland to Sachs Harbour. This year Mr. Manning hopes to com- plete the trip around the island. On arrival in Banks Island the party planned to transport their supplies by Eskimo dog team to Castel Bay.
Ellesmere Ice Shelf party In April 1953 a two-man party began
a study of the ice shelf of northern Ellesmere Island. Geoffrey Hattersley- Smith, Defence Research Board of Can- ada, and Robert Blackadar, Geological Survey of Canada, were flown to Thule by U.S.A.F. aircraft, in order to pick up two Eskimo and their dog teams. They then continued by air to Alert where they planned to start their survey, re- turning in the fall.
Hattersley-Smith will make a glacio- logical study of the ice shelf, which is believed to be the source area of the arctic ice islands.1 He plans to measure the extent and thickness of the shelf and to determine whether it is at present in- creasing in size. Blackadar will assist this work and will also examine the geology of the coastal belt.
Ice islands observed on R.C.A.F. polar flights
During this year's polar flights by the R.C.A.F. Specialist Navigation Course from the Central Navigation School, the following information on ice islands was obtained.
On 25 April a reconnaissance of Tl was carried out while on a flight around
!See Arctic, Vol. 4 (1952) pp. 67-103, 183-7, and 211-23.
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