THE OPEN POLAR SEA. 361 



eastward being now supplanted by the great glacier 

 of Humboldt ; that lying to the westward now bear- 

 ing the name of Kennedy Channel. 



With the warm flood of the Gulf Stream pouring 

 northward, and keeping the waters of the Polar Sea 

 at a temperature above the freezing point, while the 

 winds, blowing as constantly under the Arctic as un- 

 der the Tropic sky, and the ceaseless currents of the 

 sea and the tide-flow of the surface, keep the waters 

 ever in movement, it is not possible, as I have be- 

 fore observed, that even any considerable portion of 

 this extensive sea can be frozen over. At no point 

 within the Arctic Circle has there been found an ice- 

 belt extending, either in winter or in summer, more 

 than from fifty to a hundred miles from land. And 

 even in the narrow channels separating the islands 

 of the Parry Archipelago, in Baffin Bay, in the North 

 Water, and the mouth of Smith Sound, — everywhere, 

 indeed, within the broad area of the Frigid Zone, the 

 waters will not freeze except when sheltered by the 

 land, or when an ice-pack, accumulated by a long 

 continuance of winds from one quarter, affords the 

 same protection. That the sea does not close excej^t 

 when at rest, I had abundant reason to know during 

 the late winter ; for at all times, as this narrative fre- 

 quently records, even when the temperature of the 

 air was below the freezing point of mercury, I could 

 hear from the deck of the schooner the roar of the 

 beating waves. 



It would be needless for me to detain the reader 

 with the conclusions to be drawn from the condition 

 of the sea as observed by me at the point from which 

 the last chapter left us returning, as the facts speak 

 for themselves. It will not, however, be out of place 



