396 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 196 2 



the crew. Departing the Pole on August 27 Seadragon continued 

 this routine until emerging from under the ice north of Bering Strait. 

 A brief stop was made at Nome, Alaska, and on September 14 Sea- 

 dragon arrived at Pearl Harbor. 



The final questions answered, all of the Arctic is now open to naviga- 

 tion by any nation having nuclear submarines. This is possible 

 through the miracle of nuclear power. A hundred and nineteen years 

 ago. Sir William Edward Parry could not have predicted SeadragorCs 

 voyage as he struggled through an icebound channel for the first 

 time in a sail-driven wooden ship, misguided by a vexed magnetic 

 compass. Neither can we predict today the nature of the change 

 that will have occurred in the Arctic a hundred years hence. But 

 change it most certainly will. 



The Queen Elizabeth Islands of the Canadian Archipelago are 

 rich in minerals. As those new materials become more valuable and 

 as science makes them easier to obtain, commerce will surely move 

 into the Arctic and flourish. SeadragorCs route through the Parry 

 Channel and many others yet uncharted will some day be important 

 commercial routes just as they are today routes of military signifi- 

 cance. Passenger routes across the Arctic of great importance are 

 already in daily use in the air. 



The idea of increasing importance of the Arctic is not a new one. 

 Many years ago that venerable Arctic explorer and writer Vilhjalmur 

 Stefansson gathered together the impressive evidence for this thesis 

 in a book called "Northward the Course of Empire." This book traces 

 the center of civilization from its inception in a tropical climate, 

 observes its slow movement north to temperate regions, and predicts 

 an eventual center far to the north of where it exists now. 



Across the Arctic Ocean from Canada there is already considerable 

 activity. North of the 60th parallel, 6 million people live under 

 Soviet direction, while north of the same parallel in Canada and 

 Alaska live only a few hundred thousand. Just south of the Arctic 

 Circle, Archangel has a population of 300,000, while the northernmost 

 city of comparable size in North America is Vancouver, which is 15° 

 farther south. Geography has aimed the great waterways of the 

 Russian heartland to the north. While the Ob, Yenisei, and Lena 

 Rivers may never approach the same position of importance that the 

 Mississippi River holds in the commerce of North America, they 

 nevertheless are important commercial routes to north-central Asia. 

 The northern sea route across the top of Eurasia is of growing impor- 

 tance as the main path for freight between the river systems and the 

 population of the Soviet North. It is of increasing strategic signifi- 

 cance as the only secure waterway between Soviet Pacific forces and 

 the rest of the Soviet Union. The Russian interest in this route has 



