1902.] BRYANT — DRIFT CASKS IX THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 159 



and which subsequently swept the brave little Fram across a great 

 portion of the unknown area. 



From the nature of the case, it is difficult to prophesy the time 

 that will be required to complete the drift. 



The Jeannette was put into the ice in latitude 71° 35' N. and 

 longitude 175° W. and consumed twenty-two months in making 

 her zigzag drift of 1300 miles. The provision list signed by 

 Lieutenant DeLong, and the other articles believed to belong to the 

 Jeannette, were three years in traversing the distance from the place 

 where that vessel was crushed in latitude 77° 15' N., longitude 

 155° E., to the point where they were picked up by the Eskimo, 

 off Julianhaab, in South Greenland, a distance of 2900 miles. ^ 



Assuming that the resultant of the drift of these casks will be the 

 same as that of the Jeannette before she sank, and assuming that 

 their subsequent drift will be at a rate of speed corresponding to 

 that of the relics — that is, about 2.6 miles per day of twenty-four 

 hours — we find that a period of about five years will be required to 

 bring them to the same locality ; but it is only fair to assume that 

 a certain percentage of the casks which are carried in this great 

 current — estimated to be 300 miles in width — will find their way to 

 the shores of Franz Joseph Land, Spitzbergen or Nova Zembla, 

 in which event the chances are quite good of their being recovered 

 at an earlier date by Norwegian walrus hunters or fishermen. 



The controlling influence of winds in their relation to the recog- 

 nized and well-defined ocean currents is a fact accepted by all 

 meteorologists at the present day. It is said currents are set in 

 motion by this agency which attain a speed of from three to four 

 miles per hour. If such is the case where the ordinary ocean sur- 

 faces are concerned, how much more potent must the impelling 

 force of the winds be in conditions where countless ice surfaces are 

 presented to its action. In reading of the drift of the Jeannette, 

 nothing is more striking than the rapid progress the imprisoned 

 ship made in the summer months as a result of the influence of the 

 continuous southeast winds which prevailed. Admiral Melville 

 alludes to the effect of innumerable hummocks of ice, '' like mil- 

 lions of sails set to catch the breeze," and states that after each of 

 these disturbances had subsided a setback drift to the southeast set 

 in.^ The experiences of the Fram party appear to have been quite 

 similar ; and these facts would seem to point to some uniform and 



1 The Farthest North, Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, Vol. i, p. 19. 



2 « The Drift of the Jearnette," Id. 



