GEOGRAPHY. 359 



sumed by way of the open leads between the ice-floes. On the 28th of 

 August, Thaddeus Island, of the New Siberia group, was reached, and 

 a delay of ten days ensued from the ice openings being closed. It was 

 not until September 12 that a start could be made for the coast of Si- 

 beria, and very soon afterward the boats were separated in a gale of wind. 

 The boat commanded by Lieutenant Chipp, and having a crew of eight 

 men, has never since been heard of. Lieutenant-Commander De Long's 

 boat reached the Lena delta, where all the party but two seamen died of 

 starvation and exposure ; while the party in the third boat, commanded 

 by Chief Engineer Melville, safely reached the Russian settlements on 

 the Lena, terribly exhausted and frost-bitten. 



The officers of the United States steamer Eodgers, Lieut. E. M. Berry 

 commanding, while engaged in a search for the Jeannette in the autumn 

 of 1881, made a thorough examination of Wrangell Land, which was sui)- 

 posed by the late Dr. Petermann to form a i)art of an extensive Arctic 

 continent, but has now been definitely ascertained to be an island about 

 70 miles long, east and west, and 35 miles broad, including the sand-spits 

 which make out from the north and south coasts from G to 10 miles. 

 The whole island is a succession of peaks and valleys, one peak near 

 the center of the island rising to a height of 2,500 feet, with a range of 

 high hills extending round the island near the coast line. One small 

 harbor was found on the southern coast. Lieutenant Berry explored 

 the island thoroughly and made a chart of it. 



After leaving Wrangell Island, Lieutenant Berry picked his way 

 through the lloes of ice to a point 132 miles farther north, in latitude 

 73° 44' — the highest latitude ever attained in this sea. From the mast- 

 head at this point no indication of land could be seen to the northward, 

 and the depth (82 fathoms) here was increasing as the vessel proceeded 

 northward. Lieutenant Berry found no evidences of a current in this 

 sea, other than that produced by the ebb and flow of the tide. 



After a fall discussion of the various alleged currents of Bering's 

 Sea (Appendix No. 10, Coast Survey Report for 1880), Mr. W. H. Dall, 

 whose experience entitles his opinions to great respect, comes to the 

 conclusion that no warm current from the southwest enters Bering's 

 Strait with the excej^tion of water from the adjacent rivers or sounds; 

 that the Kuro Siwo, or Japanese Gulf Stream, sends no recognizable 

 branch northward into Behring's Sea, and that the strait is incapable 

 of carrying a warm current of sufficient magnitude to have airy marked 

 eftect on the water of the polar basin. He agrees with Lieutenant 

 Berry in considering the currents as chiefly tidal, and finds nothing de- 

 veloped in his investigation to sui)port in the slightest degree the 

 hypothesis of large areas of water in the Polar Sea free from ice. The 

 opinion of Mr. Dali, that the movements of the ice are largely depend- 

 ent on prevailing winds, is fully borne but by the experience of the 

 oflicers of the Jeannette. During- Mr. Dall's examination of the currents 



