POLAR GEOGRAPHY BROWIT 357 



Borden Land and may, if it really exists, be the long-lost Plover 

 Land. Inaccuracies in latitude and longitude are easily made in 

 hasty observations in high latitudes.® 



An even more alluring mystery can be solved only by the explora- 

 tion of that part of the Arctic Ocean between Spitsbergen and Franz 

 Josef Land from latitude 80° to 84° N. There is no record of a ship 

 traversing it, and there is more than one report of high land seen 

 to the northeast of the Spitsbergen group. This, if it exists, i§ 

 not Giles Land, which is farther south and relatively low, but it may 

 be an outlying island of the Franz Josef group.® There are, how- 

 ever, other problems of great interest in the north. The extent and 

 bottom features of the Arctic basin are still little known, and only in 

 a few places has the width of the remarkable continental shelf been 

 defined. North of Alaska, the New Siberian Islands, and Spits- 

 bergen, the edge has been charted and with less certainty north of 

 Ellesmere Island and the Franz Josef group. In other parts it is 

 still vague. When evidence is scanty it may seem rash to speculate 

 on the origin of the Arctic Ocean, but there are many features about 

 the Arctic basin which suggest that it is not comparable with the 

 basins of the Atlantic and Pacific, and that it is possibly a relatively 

 new feature of the earth's crust. On the other hand, the discovery 

 in East Greenland of extensive series of Paleozoic rocks seems to 

 dispose of the idea of a former Arctic continent of great extent. 



Another problem of importance and far-reaching influence is the 

 mysterious fluctuation in the extent of Arctic sea ice. The fluctua- 

 tions appear to be cyclic rather than progressive, but so far defy 

 satisfactory explanation. C. E. P. Brooks has recently pointed out 

 the influence of the amount of ice in the Labrador and East Green- 

 land currents on pressure distribution and consequent amount of 

 precipitation in the British Isles.^*^ Here at least is one direct link 

 between the Arctic and the most important factor in our climate. 

 But until we know more about Arctic climatic conditions and the 

 distribution of ice in the Arctic basin, we are not likely to find the 

 cause of these fluctuations. 



* Plover Land aud Borden Land, V. Stefanssou, Geog. Rev. (New York), April, 1921. 

 It may be noted that Keenan Land is the only one of these doubtful lands that Stieler 

 retains in his most recent Nordpolar map. 



° Giles Land (also Gillies Land or Island), discovered in 1707, was rediscovered by 

 J. Kjeldsen in 1876 and explored by A. G. Nathorst in 1898. It lies in about latitude 

 80° N., due east of Spitsbergen. This is where Giles himself placed it. The area of sea 

 indicated was crossed by the Soviet icebreaker Krassin in her search for the crew of the 

 wrecked airship Italia in 1927. No land was seen. 



" See the annual report on The State of Ice in the Arctic Seas, published by the 

 Danish Meteorological Office from all available records. It is necessarily incomplete 

 and leaves great areas untouched, especially the seas north of Asia and the Beaufort 

 Sea, where observations are most needed. C. E. P. Brooks, Pressure Distribution 

 Associated with Seasons in the British Isles, Quart. Journ. Roy. Meteorol. See, 52, 

 1926 ; W. Weise, Polareis und Atmosphiirische Schwankungen, Geogr. Ann., 6, p. 273, 

 Stockholm, 1924. 



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