Virtually all of Jock's trips were motivated by his work. He travelled in order to see geology, give talks or whole series of lectures, attend conferences, discuss theories, or collaborate in research with colleagues. If there was geology he wanted to see near destinations, and usually there was, he would do his utmost to arrange his journey to and from his destination via these places of interest. Although he made many short trips, it was on the longer ones, further afield, that he took most of his photographs.
Jock's longest trip was one of his earliest. His five month around-the-world trip in 1950 was the result of an invitation by Sir Mark Oliphant to visit the Australian National University. It was in preparation for this trip that Jock's father helped him to buy the camera, with which he took all his slides. Jock visited every state in Australia and lectured for at least several weeks each in several universities throughout the country. As part of this trip he or others arranged for his visits to the other countries, primarily in Africa and southern Pacific Islands.
~ From a letter to his parents from TorontoApril 30, 1950
Malton Airport near Toronto Canada, June 3, 1950
Jock's most intense travel came during the period of his presidency of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) from 1957 to 1960. By virtue of the fact that he was a vice president of the IUGG at the time of its planning, the execution of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) became his responsibility. Jock liked to joke that there was only one of two possible things that the general population knew of this massive international project: either earth scientists didn't know how many months there were in a year, or they didn't know how to count, as the IGY was in fact 18 months long, from July 1957 to the end of 1958. However, Lloyd Berkner gave a more serious view of this immense undertaking in his Foreword to Jock's book, IGY: Year of the New Moons (p. 7): "The International Geophysical Year (IGY) was perhaps the most ambitious and at the same time the most successful co-operative enterprise ever undertaken by man. The IGY was a scientific year. It was a year when men of sixty-seven nations agreed to observe the earth over its whole surface, simultaneously, and with precise instruments designed to the same standards so that changing phenomena enveloping the earth could be caught and described in their full global sense."
During the 18-month period of the IGY, Jock made countless trips: to many destinations in the United States, to numerous European countries, through parts of the USSR, to both Chinas, and to both polar regions. He continued to travel frequently for the remainder of his three-year tenure as president of the IUGG, including a trip to most every country in South America. He has the Canadian government and the University of Toronto, his employer, to thank as they provided him with time and financial support so that he could undertake both the IGY organization and some of these trips.
Further information on his trips is given as introductions to the nine groups of slides arranged by geographical region.