Introduction. 19 



i 



"It cannot possibly have come through Smith Sound, 

 as the current there passes along the western side of 

 Baffin's Bay, and it would thus have been conveyed to 

 Baffin's Land or Labrador, and not to the west coast 

 of Greenland. The current Hows along this coast in a 

 northerly direction, and is a continuation ot the Green- 

 land polar current, which comes along the east coast of 

 Greenland, takes a bend round Cape Farewell, and 

 passes upwards along the west coast. 



"It is by this current only that the Hoe could have 

 come. 



" But the question now arises what route did it take 

 from the New Siberian Islands in order to reach the east 

 coast of Greenland ? 



" It is conceivable that it might have drifted along the 

 north coast of Siberia, south of Franz Josef Land, up 

 through the sound between Franz Josef Land and 

 Spitzbergen, or even to the south of Spitzbergen, and 

 might after that have got into the polar current which 

 flows along Greenland. If, however, we study the 

 directions of the currents in these regions so far as they 

 are at present ascertained, it will be found that this is 

 extremely improbable, not to say impossible." 



these masses of ice will be carried by the current along the Greenland 

 coast. It is not, therefore, altogether impossible that, if the ship of 

 such an expedition is able to survive the pressure of the masses of ice 

 for any length of time, it will arrive safely at South Greenland ; but in 

 that case it must be prepared to spend several years on the way." 



C 2 



