45t5 MELVILLE — REMAKES ON POLAR EXPEDITION. [Oct. 29, 



although one died of smallpox in Siberia on the way home. The 

 total loss was thus sixty-six per cent, of the personnel of the expe- 

 dition, and of the original survivors there are only six now alive. 



Now, as regards our drift. It was quite evident that, for the first 

 eighteen months at least, our drift was caused by the fierce south- 

 easterly gales that drove the pack up into the northwest. We can 

 conceive the effect of the innumerable hummocks of ice, like mil- 

 lions of sails set to catch the breeze. After the subsidence of each 

 gale, we took a rapid setback drift to the southeast. In fact, in the 

 spring of 1880, after our first winter in the pack, we were driven 

 back in sight of Wrangel Land to about the place where we were 

 first beset, which accords with Dr. Nansen's experience. 



Dr. Nansen found a deep sea to the northward and westward of 

 the line of our drift, which is the exact opposite of our experience 

 in the part of the ocean we traversed. Although soundings were 

 taken every day at noon, they never but once showed more than 

 from thirteen to thirty-six fathoms. Even this greatest depth was 

 only eighty fathoms, which occurred at the most northern point of 

 our drift during the winter of 1880. 



I had a theory of an ice cap at the Pole (which, by the way, 

 our good friend, Dr. Nansen, has very materially shaken) extend- 

 ing down to about 85°, against which I believed the drifting pack 

 impinged. Between thissupposed ice cap and the drifting pack, in 

 the shallow sea in which we were drifting, I conceived a canal of 

 comparatively deep water, which my messmates in derision called 

 *' Melville's Canal." It is needless to say, however, that I was 

 pleased, as were also my messmates, to find that we were on the 

 edge of " Melville's Canal" when we got a cast of the lead in eighty 

 fathoms of water, and they conceded that my theory of a deep canal 

 might be correct, so that, in our theories at least, " Melville'-s 

 Canal" had a recognized standing. 



Unfortunately, after the southeasterly gales had ceased to blow, 

 we were rapidly drifted back again by the receding ice, and never 

 again got far enough north to find the deep water where currents 

 alone can run. It is impossible for any geographer to conceive of 

 a natural sea current in a shallow sea of thirty fathoms. Local 

 currents, it is true, may be caused by wind or tide, if there is any ; 

 or by the outflow of great rivers, but a natural current of inlet and 

 outlet, caused by the heated or chilled waters, such as the mighty 

 Gulf Stream, or the Kuro Siwo of Japan, can only run and be 



