BRITISH POLAR YEAR EXPEDITION TO FORT 

 RAE, NORTHWEST CANADA, 1932-33^ 



By J. M. Stagg 



[With 2 plates] 



The first three-quarters of last century were years of tremendous 

 activity in polar and especially Arctic exploration. Led by such men 

 as McLintock, Franklin, Ross, Barrow, and many others, expedition 

 followed expedition for a long series of years. Naturally, a great 

 deal of novel and extremely interesting observational material was 

 gathered in the course of these expeditions, but, on the whole, and 

 very largely because of the sporadic and uncoordinated nature of the 

 activities, the truly scientific results accruing from so much splendid 

 effort and so great expense were considered meager. 



Hence it came about that, around 1875, a proposal was put forward 

 by Count Weyprecht, of Austria, for the arranging of a number of 

 simultaneous expeditions which would cooperate on a uniform plan 

 over a full year. The result was the organization of what has come 

 to be known as the First International Polar Year, 1882-83, when 

 14 expeditions were in the field, 12 to high northern latitudes and 2 to 

 the Antarctic. Great Britain collaborated with Canada in establish- 

 ing a station at Fort Rae, a trading outpost of the Hudson's Bay Co. 

 on the North Arm of the Great Slave Lake. From that expedition 

 Captain Dawson, R. E. (who in 1932 died as Colonel Dawson), with 

 his party of engineers trained as observers and with the assistance of 

 Canadian canoe men and guides, brought back results whose value 

 and usefulness have not been fully explored to this day. During that 

 First Polar Year all the stations were fully equipped with such instru- 

 ments as were then available for a comprehensive series of observa- 

 tions in meteorology and terrestrial magnetism; they worked on a 

 common prearranged plan. 



Practically and scientifically, from the point of view of the interna- 

 tional collaboration as well as Britain's share in it, the year's activi- 

 ties were completely successful. 



1 The G. J. Symons' Memorial Lecture delivered on Mar. 21, 1934. Reprinted by 

 permission from the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, vol. 60, no. 

 256, July 1034, 



107 



