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from tho coast of Wrangel’s Land to 77° 30’ Lat. 155° Long.
E. G. 1
But the fate of the wrecked expeditions was scarcely
needed to convince us of the existence of an ice-current from
east to west in the northern part of the Siberian sea, since
the huge accumulation of driftwood, heaped up on every shoal
coast of Spitzbergen, must unmistakably be deposits arriving
from the mouths of the Siberian rivers.2 Spitzbergen acts
like a breakwater on this ice-current, forcing it to round the
northern points of the North-East-Land or pass through
Hin-loopen Strait. We know, that the northern coast of Spitzbergen
is swept by the drift ice, which occasionally leaves a narrow
channel of navigable water, more or less open, extending from
the Amsterdam Island archipelago toward the north-east. In
the Erganzungsheft N:o 16 zu den Geograph. Mittheil.,
where-Petermann has inserted a map of Spitzbergen, taken from
the measurements by Nordenskiold and Duner of
the-Swedish expeditions 1860—1864, the places, where driftwood
is principally found, are marked with green tints. A
glance-at this map shows us, not only the northern coast of the
North-East-Land from Dove bay to Hinloopen Strait and
likewise the Seven Islands, Moffen, Low Island, but also the
southern coast of Stans’ Foreland, the Thousand Islands and
the eastern side of the shoal coast of South-cape, where a
branch of the ice-current seeks its way westward, garnished
with driftwood.
But also that part of the ice, which really melts in the
arctic sea, leaves the water in a condition little favorable, for
immediate diffusion. The density of the ice-water at the
melting-point being very inferior to that of the salt water
beneath the ice, the melting process will tend to produce a
thin superficial stratum of fresh water, which the remains of
the floating ice will protect from external disturbance by
keeping out the force of the waves. Some examples will tend
to confirm this.
Early in summer the south-eastern part of the Barentz
Sea with the entrances to the Kara Sea, the Kara Strait and
the Yugor Schar are barricaded by a strong barrier of
pack-ice, which in August melts away very rapidly. In this part
schaftlichen Beobachtungen wahrend der 2ten Oesterr.-Ung.
Nordpolar-Ex-pedition unter Weyprecht u. Payer 1872—74. Wien Jan. 18, 1878.
1 Scientific results of the »Jeannette» expedition. Nature, Sept. 14, 1882.
2 See Agardh, Ofvers. K. V. A. Forhandl. 1869.
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