238 ADDITIONAL NOTICES. [June 25, 1860. 



Of the island of Nova Zembla we have but few accounts from recent voyagers. 

 Barentz visited it, and from what he says it may be presumed to resemble 

 Spitzbergen in the wamith of its summer climate. 



When Captain Parry left Spitzbergen he proceeded directly northward ; and 

 we have seen that he encountered much rain, with occasionally a high 

 temperature for the latitude. It seems also that he might have proceeded 

 farther on the same meridian, notwithstanding the obstacles to his progress 

 presented by the ice, had he not encountered an adverse oceanic current. This 

 current is described by him as setting southward, that is, it was running from 

 the Pole ! Now a current of water could not flow from the part about the 

 Pole, along the meridian of 20° e., on which Parry was proceeding, unless 

 some other current was running towards the Pole, over some other meridian. 

 It has been shown that in all primary currents of the ocean, wind presses on 

 the surface of the water, and forces it forward until it is stopped by some 

 barrier. The water is then raised above its natural level, and may possibly 

 return as a secondary current passing through some channel, or as an under- 

 current ; or, the water, having been forced forward in an open sea in one 

 direction, may meet with another current and be bent from its course, as is 

 found to be the case in many parts of the ocean. The current encountered by 

 Parry, when he was near the latitude of 83°, may therefore have been a return 

 current flowing from the Pole. 



Malte-Brun says, " The polar currents of the north exhibit very remarkabte 

 effects. These currents" are particularly observed in the Northern Frozen 

 Ocean, on the coasts of Greenland and Iceland, and in Bering Strait, they 

 have usually a direction from north to south, occasionally the reverse. In 

 Bering Strait the current which brings the ice from the Polar Sea to the neigh- 

 bourhood of Kamschatka is distinctly felt " (p. 341). Now it is not possible 

 that water could continue to flow from the Northern Frozen Ocean unless 

 some other current flowed into it. And the various facts within our know- 

 ledge, some of which have been given, point towards the part named as the 

 line or stripe which this current traverses in flowing towards the Pole. An 

 oceanic as well as an atmospheric current passing over the Arctic Ocean from 

 the south-west, near Nova Zembla, mighf go eastward across the Polar Sea, 

 and to that part of it which is north of America. Or the water having been 

 forced towards and accumulated near to, or about the supposed high land near 

 the Pole, might, by statical pressure, be afterwards impelled towards Bering 

 Strait, Barrow Strait, and even to the east coast of Greenland; just as the 

 water in the Gulf of Mexico, by its elevation, forces the rapid Gulf-stream 

 through the Straits of Florida to the Azores. The existence of a current 

 flowing from the north through Bering Strait, and another from Baffin Bay 

 to the Atlantic, raises a presumption that there is a stream from the south 

 forced into some part of the Arctic Ocean ; and in no other part does it appear 

 so likely to be found as between the islands of Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. 

 Supposing this sea to be open in the summer, it would not require a strong 

 southern current to furnish the water that may pass by the Pole and out by 

 Bering Strait and Baffin Bay, seeing that neither of the two latter is strong, 

 and that, on the east side of Greenland, it appears to be so feeble as to be 

 detected only by the presence of bodies that have floated to its shores. Malte- 

 Brun attributes the currents from the north to the melting of snow and ice ; 

 but this is so inadequate a cause, that it perhaps would not have been thought 

 of, if any other probable cause could be found. 



Dr. Kane, in his account of his northern voyage on the western side of 

 Greenland, represents that his exploration was continued up to the 12th July, 

 and he observes that " Greenland has been traced to its northern face. A 

 glacier i*uns nearly due north, and cements together the continent masses of 

 Greenland and America. The northern land into which this glacier merges 



