A new genus and species of Epiphloeinae from Brazil (Coleoptera: Cleridae)

A new genus and species of Cleridae, Opitzius thoracicus, from Brazil is described and illustrated. Its unique features and variability are indicated

A new species of Acmaeodera (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) from Big Bend National Park, Texas : with synonymy for other species occurring in the United States

Acmaeodera tiquilia Westcott and Barr, new species, from Big Bend National Park, Texas is described, figured, and discussed in considerable detail, particularly in relation to the similar and partially sympatric A. recticollis Fall. A neotype is designated for A. quatuordecimspilota Obenberger and that species is synonymized with A. ornata (Fabricius). Additionally, A. gibbula gila Knull is synonymized with A. gibbula LeConte; A. nautica Van Dyke is synonymized with A. simulata Van Dyke

Structurally-controlled fluvioglacial erosion features near Schefferville, Québec

The coincidence as to location of a late-Wisconsin ice disintegration centre, with an earlier ice dispersal centre, some 30 miles north-west of Schefferville, Québec, resulted in large scale englacial meltwater flow from north-north-west to south-south-east across the Schefferville area. The direction of flow was controlled by the englacial hydraulic gradient, controlled in turn by the ice surface gradient. The Schefferville area is underlain by Proterozoic metasediments, exhibiting a series of parallel folds and thrust-faults aligned NW-SE ; this structure is reflected in the marked parallelism of the ridges and valleys. When the englacial meltwater streams were let down on to this substrate, structurally controlled alignment of the meltwater channels resulted. Generally, this has resulted in remarkably straight channels aligned along the strike or along faults. In the Houston Mountain area, however, steeply pitching anticlinos in slates oroduced a striking series of subglacial arcuate channels. At several points in the Schefferville area, subglacial meltwater flow down a hillside at right angles to the strike, and in the opposite direction to the dip, in zones of steeply dipping, well-bedded sediments, has produced the features referred to in literature as vallons, and earlier explained as being largely periglacial in origin. These are a special type of structurally controlled subglacial chute, in which there has been only slight periglacial modification of the original fluvioglacial form

Francis Leopold McClintock (1819-1907)

Born in County Louth, Ireland, on 8 July 1819, the son of the head of the customs office at Dundalk, Leopold McClintock first went to sea aboard HMS Samarang as a first-class volunteer at the age of 12. Over the next 14 years, he slowly made his way up through the system, seeing service in such diverse places as the Gulf of California, Brazil, the Irish Sea, the Channel, the Caribbean, Newfoundland, Burmuda, and the Rio de la Plata. He was made lieutenant on 29 July 1845. ... In the spring of 1851, McClintock led one of the many sledge parties that fanned out from the ships. Leaving the ships on 15 April, he headed west along the south coasts of Cornwallis, Bathurst, Byam Martin, and Melville islands and reached Cape James Ross, situated on the southwest tip of Melville Island. Rounding the shores of Dundas Peninsula, he then cut back across that peninsula to the south coast before he headed for home, reaching the ships on 4 July. He had covered a distance of 1,240 km in 80 days. ... In the spring of 1853, McClintock led a party that achieved the distinction of making one of the two longest man-hauled sledge trips accomplished in the Canadian Arctic. McClintock crossed the "waist" of Melville Island to Hecla and Griper Bay, then coasted west to the island's northwest tips. Crossing Fitzwilliam Strait, he discovered and explored Prince Patrick Island, as well as the north coasts of Eglinton Island and the west and south coasts of Emerald Isle. In total he covered 2,125 km in l05 days. This record would be surpassed only by Lieutenant George Mecham's journey of 2,138 km in 84 days in the spring of 1854. ... He will be remembered by history as the man who refined the technique of arctic exploration of man-hauling to an amazingly high degree, despite the staggering inherent limitations of the technique, and as the man who solved - as far as it ever has been - the mystery of the fate of the Franklin expedition

The Drift of Lenin's Convoy in the Laptev Sea, 1937-1938

As a result of various miscalculations 25 ships underwent an enforced wintering at various points in the Soviet Arctic in the winter of 1937-1938. Among the vessels involved was a convoy of six ships led by the icebreaker Lenin, which spent the winter drifting in the Laptev Sea. Several of the ships were severely damaged by ice pressure, and one ship was crushed and sank. Early in 1938 all superfluous personnel were flown south to Tiksi in an emergency airlift operation. The author presents the first detailed English-language account of this wintering

Christopher Middleton (ca. 1690-1770)

... He appears to have gone to sea at quite an early age, his service aboard Hudson's Bay Company ships beginning around 1719, possibly even earlier. Early in his career Middleton established his reputation as a meticulous and innovative navigator: in the spring of 1726 he published a paper in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions on the variation of the magnetic needle in Hudson Bay. The following year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a great honour for a ship's captain of only two years' standing. Shortly afterwards, Middleton's path crossed that of Arthur Dobbs, an influential Anglo-Irish landowner and a hard-line free trader who bitterly resented the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly. Furthermore, Dobbs was convinced that a practicable Northwest Passage could be found via Hudson Bay and he decided to pursue its discovery, incidentally hoping to break the Company's monopoly in the process. Using his considerable influence in London, Dobbs persuaded the Admiralty to mount an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage via Hudson Bay. Further, by arranging a commission for Middleton in the Navy, Dobbs induced him to leave the company and to command this enterprise. ... Leaving Churchill on 30 June 1742, Middleton's ships headed north. They discovered and entered Wager Bay but were then locked in the bay for several weeks by drifting ice. By means of boat journeys, however, Middleton established to his own satisfaction that the Northwest Passage did not lie through Wager Bay. Emerging again into Roes Welcome Sound pushed north once more, only to have his hopes dashed on reaching the cul-de-sac of Repulse Bay. Frozen Strait was still ice-covered; hence, there was no chance of pursuing the search into Foxe Basin. Having called at Marble Island for water, Middleton sailed for home, satisfied in his own mind that there was no route to the Pacific through Hudson Bay. ... To Middleton we owe the exploration and mapping of Wager Bay, the northern part of Roes Welcome Sound, and Repulse Bay. Such a highly qualified judge as Captain W.E. Parry, for whom Middleton's discoveries were the starting point of his own second expedition, was extremely impressed by the carefulness and accuracy of Middleton's observations and surveying. It is extremely ironic that, while the names of Lieutenant John Rankin and Arthur Dobbs are commemorated in the place names of Rankin Inlet and Cape Dobbs, Christopher Middleton's name appears nowhere on the map of the Hudson Bay area. Rectification of this situation is long overdue