CHAPTER XXXII. 



THE OPEN POLAR SEA.— WIDTH OF THE POLAR BASIN. — BOUNDARIES OF THE 

 POLAR BASIN. — POLAR CURRENTS. — POLAR ICE. —THE ICE-BELT. — ARCTIC 

 NAVIG.\TION AND DISCOVERY. — THE RUSSIAN SLEDGE EXPLORATIONS.— 

 WRANGEL'S OPEN SEA. — PARRY'S BOAT EXPEDITION. —DR. KANE'S DISCOV- 

 ERIES. — EXPANSION OF SMITH SOUND. — GENERAL CONCLUSIONS DRAWN 

 FROM ]MY OWN DISCOVERIES AND THOSE OF MY PREDECESSORS. 



Let us pause here a few moments, in order that we 

 may take a brief survey of the Polar Basin and arrive 

 at a correct understanding of what is meant by the 

 terra, " Open Polar Sea," so often used. 



By referring to the circumpolar map, the reader 

 will be able to form a more accurate judgment than 

 he could from the most elaborate description. He 

 will observe that about the North Pole of the earth 

 there is an extensive sea, or, more properly, ocean, 

 with an averaare diameter of more than two thousand 

 miles. He will observe that this sea is almost com- 

 pletely surrounded by land, and that its shores are, 

 for the most part, well defined, — the north coasts of 

 Greenland and Grinnell Land, which project farthest 

 into it, being alone undetermined. He will note that 

 these shores occupy, to a certain extent, a uniform, 

 distance from the Pole, and are everywhere within 

 the region of perpetual frost. He will remember that 

 they are inhabited everywhere by people of the same 

 race, to whom the soil yields no subsistence, who live 

 exclusively by hunting and fishing, and confine their 

 dwelling-places either to the coast or to the banks of 



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