HOBBS— THE FIXED GLACIAL ANTICYCLONE. 37 



A month later Captain Scott entered the same general region 

 and remained within it for about three weeks to report generally 

 similar conditions. After passing the parallel of 8/^/4° scarcely a 

 day passed that he did not jot down in his diary the observation of 

 variable light winds and of a soft snow surface. He appeared to be 

 puzzled by the clouds " which don't seem to come from anywhere, 

 form and disperse without reason." ..." Coming and going over- 

 head all day, drifting from the southeast and constantly altering 

 shape, snow crystals falling all the time." Again and again he 

 refers to the dampness and chill of the air and that when the ther- 

 mometer was examined all were surprised that it recorded so high 

 a temperature. 



In Greenland de Quervain found the air over the ice within the 

 central area moved by light variable winds and highly charged with 

 mosture, the mist hiding members of the party at only moderate 

 distances and the beards, caps, chins, etc., frozen into a solid mass 

 of ice. In their report on the Swiss Greenland Expedition, de 

 Quervain and Mercanton,^ after giving in tabular form the data for 

 humidity above the inland-ice along the route of the expedition, 

 sum up as follows : 



We find, therefore, a quite high average relative humidity, 82 per cent, 

 as well for the whole distance as for the central region, and a quite small 

 daily variation of the relative humidity : this varies on the average for the 

 entire time between the values of 88 per cent, and "]"/ per cent. ; for the cen- 

 tral zone the variation is somewhat greater, namely, between about 92 per 

 cent, and Ti per cent. Near the border of the ice the relative humidity is less 

 by about 5 per cent. (p. 136). 



Koch and Wegener encountered farther north when crossing the 

 central area of the ice-dome a region of atmospheric calm with 

 much mist, which in the morning was so dense as to obscure the 

 sun. Clothing was constantly wet and could be dried only with the 

 greatest difficulty. 



The most striking departures of ice-dome anticyclones from the 

 ordinary tjavelling anticyclones are : ( i ) the fixed, as opposed to the 

 migrating, position of the air whirl; (2) the location of this whirl 



* Prof. Dr. Alfred de Quervain and Prof. Dr. P. L. Mercanton, Er- 

 gebnisse der Schweitzerischen Gronland Expedition, 1912-1913, Dcnkschr. d. 

 schweiz., Natnrf. GcselL, vol. 53, 1920, pp. 402, pis. 4. 



