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By coincidence, the centenaries of the foundation of modern soil science, of the publication of the first treatise on microscope study of sediments, and of the International Polar Year all fall in the period 1980-1983. It is generally agreed that those early arctic exploration parties that adapted most closely to the Arctic conditions were most successful. So it is with approaches to the typification and classification of Arctic soils. Classification schemes relying on external factor influences, on a rigid distinction of stable and cryoturbic profiles, or on the absence of features held to be diagnostic of soils of temperate areas are least successful. The techniques of soil micromorphology are particularly useful in interpreting the significance of soil fabrics in Arctic soils of limited depth and marked horizontal heterogeneity. The features of pore development, especially cracks, vesicles and acicular voids, dominate the drying soil in the limited summer period. Banded fabrics, particle grinding of coarse debris, and the development of silt coatings and intrusive turbic or disrupted fabrics all show the close juxtaposition of both static and cryoturbic features. The development of orbiculic or ovoid-shaped forms is diagnostic of excessively wetted soils adjacent to the permafrost table. Vestiges of such features also survive in the deeper parts of soil profiles in former periglacial areas.