In the last issue of the Polar Record an impending readjustment of the constitution of the Scott Polar Research Institute was announced. This was formally approved by the University on 23 February 1957, and comes into force as from 1 January 1957. The following is the full text of the report of the General Board of the University:

The General Board beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. The principle of the establishment of a Scott Polar Research Institute and the provision of temporary accommodation for it in the Sedgwick Museum of Geology were approved by Grace 4 of 26 November 1920 on recommendations contained in a Report, dated 11 November 1920, of the Council of the Senate on the proposed establishment and endowment of an institute for polar research as a memorial to Captain Scott. The essential features of the institute which the Council recommended for establishment were stated in the preamble of the Council's Report as including:

1. A comprehensive collection of all polar literature into a library.

The Instituto Antártico Argentino was created in 1951 and began its activities by establishing a permanent base in Marguerite Bay, which was named “Base General San Martin”. In January 1955 it built a second base, called “Base General Belgrano”, on the Filchner Ice Shelf (lat. 77° 58′ S., long. 38° 50′ W.). Since the southern summer of 1952–53 the Institute has regularly sent a party of about twenty-five scientists to carry out field work with the annual Argentine navy Antarctic expedition. On 26 January 1956 the Institute was transferred to the Ministerio de Marina as an autonomous scientific and technical organization, not a component of the navy, and with the object of studying the nature of the Antarctic. Shortly after, it established itself in an old residential building owned by the government, at calle Cerrito 1248, Buenos Aires.

Normal insurance of hulls is not valid when vessels sail into certain waters where additional risks are incurred. These areas are exactly defined in a document produced by the Institute of London Underwriters known as the Institute Warranties, reproduced as Appendix 1. If a ship is required to sail in any of these waters, for instance Hudson Bay, or the Baltic Sea in winter time, suspension of the Warranty must be obtained from the underwriters by payment of additional premium to cover the additional risks involved. The nature of these risks is not specified, but clearly ice is a principal one in these two areas, and in some of the other areas.

One of the logical reasons for exploration is to collect the maximum of information in a specified time; therefore planning should be based on an appreciation of the pregnable gaps in as many fields of science as possible. Present Antarctic exploration is neglecting the biological sciences and in particular those of an experimental nature. Figures published for the contingents from the British Commonwealth, France and Norway at present in Antarctica include twenty-three physicists, thirteen geologists of different varieties and only two biologists. This neglect probably arises from a too rigid conception that field biology is concerned with classification and with natural history. Antarctica, however, offers great possibilities, and even certain advantages, for much biological work, and in particular its simplicity helps ecological thought and nutritional experimentation.

The term “prairie ice jigger” is a local name given by fishermen of western Canada to a simple but ingenious apparatus used to facilitate setting gill nets beneath an ice surface. A jigger consists of a board and two levers so arranged that a backward pull on a line attached to one lever is translated into a forward thrust which propels the board along beneath the ice. Thus only two holes need be chopped through the ice to set a standard net, and several nets can be set in different directions from any one hole. This represents a considerable saving in time and effort when compared with other methods such as pushing a pole with an attached line from hole to hole until sufficient line has been let out to accommodate a net. The jigger is almost a necessity to fishermen operating in northern areas of Canada, where winter fishing is carried on for several months beneath an ice cover which varies from several inches in thickness to as much as six feet.