414 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



the late expedition enable us to comprehend, 

 with a nearer approach to accuracy, the general 

 relations of the polar area to the rest of the 

 world as regards the circulation of water and the 

 distribution of laud and sea. The drift eastward 

 of the ice north of Grant Land seems to be due 

 to the great flow of warmer water into the polar 

 area, which afterward, as a cold current, seeks 

 an outlet southward at every opening, owing to 

 the polar area itself being surcharged. The 

 warmer water, flowing up between Greenland 

 and Spitzbergen as a submarine current, appears 

 to come to the surface along the Siberian coast, 

 and, aided by the discharged volume from the 

 rivers, it causes a current round the area from 

 left to right, and also across from the eastern to 

 the western hemisphere. Hence, probably, the 

 tremendous pressure on Grant Land and the 

 north coast of Greenland, which prevents the sea 

 from ever being navigable. It is possible, too, 

 that the enormous growth of the ice may be due 

 to shoal water or land, which prevents it from 

 floating south with the currents. 



The geographical results of the Arctic Expe- 

 dition are exceedingly valuable, because they 

 have a practical bearing on the general system of 

 oceanic currents and of meteorology, and conse- 

 quently form an essential part of a vast whole. 

 Without a knowledge of the hydrography of the 

 polar region all the general theories of oceanic 

 currents must be incomplete ; and arctic research 

 is, therefore, essential to a science which is of 

 great practical utility. 



But these only form a small fraction of the 

 results of an expedition from the labors of which 

 every branch of physical science has benefited. 

 We have complete series of elaborate meteorolog- 

 ical observations, extending over a whole year, 

 and taken at two different stations. Meteoro- 

 logical observations are taken at the colonies in 

 Danish Greenland, and the distance from the most 

 southerly of these at Ivigtut to the Alert's winter- 

 quarters is 1,200 miles. Thus, in the memora- 

 ble years 1875-'76, a simultaneous series of ob- 

 servations was taken at both extremities of this 

 widely-extended meridional arc. The results, as 

 might be supposed, were very important Irl a 

 former number (September, 1877, page 225) we 

 explained the nature of the Greenland -Fohn, and 

 the very remarkable example of one which oc- 

 curred in Greenland from the 20th of November 

 to the 11th of December, 1875. At the same 

 period the weather was similarly disturbed both 

 in Discovery Bay, and at the winter-quarters of 

 the Alert. The average temperature at those far 



northern stations, due to the season, should have 

 been —20° to —27°. From November 26th to 

 December 18 th the weather remained above the 

 average; and on the 12th the barometer attained 

 the highest level recorded duriDg the year. On the 

 1st of December the temperature at the Alert 

 rose as high as 4- 35°, but not at the Discovery, 

 the very warm blast passing the more southern 

 station without affecting the temperature there. 

 Again on the 4th a southerly squall raised the 

 temperature to + 23°, and similar phenomena 

 continued until the 14th. It would appear that 

 the disturbance which caused the rise in tempera- 

 ture producing a heat excess of 46° at Upernivik 

 on the 25th of November, arrived at the Alert's 

 winter-quarters about twenty-four hours after- 

 ward, causing a heat excess at that extreme 

 northern station of 40°. Captain Nares, at the 

 time, remarked that the gale must have traveled 

 to the northward from the Atlantic, because the 

 warm air was at a higher temperature than any 

 water within many hundred miles of the Alert. 

 This coincidence of the observation of the same 

 remarkable meteorological phenomenon in Green- 

 land and in the extreme north serves to show the 

 great value of arctic research in this branch of 

 scientific inquiry. As regards magnetic observa- 

 tions, two complete and elaborate series wen- 

 taken by Captain Markham and Lieutenant Gif- 

 fard in the Alert, and by Lieutenants Archer and 

 Fulford in the Discovery. The tidal observations 

 also yielded important results, which have been 

 worked out by Prof. Haughton. 



The examination of the geological formation 

 of the whole coast-line on the west side of the 

 Smith Sound channels from Cape Isabella to Cape 

 Union, as well as of the shores of the polar sea 

 for four hundred miles, and the collection of rocks 

 and fossils at every point, are also results of great 

 importance. Some broad geological facts have 

 thus been established, which dovetail with those 

 derived from an examination of the Parry Islands. 

 Thus, the carboniferous limestones of Cape Jo- 

 seph Henry will, in all probability, prove to be a 

 prolongation of similar beds discovered on Eglin- 

 ton Island, west of Melville Island, by Mecham 

 and Nares in 1853. 



But by far the most important geological dis- 

 covery was that relating to the existence of ter- 

 tiary coal in 82° north latitude, and the former 

 extension of a Miocene flora to that parallel. A 

 bed of lignite, from twenty-five to thirty feet 

 thick, was found, resting unconformably on azoic 

 schists. The lignite is overlaid by black shales 

 containing many impressions of fossil plants which 



