SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 35 



warm current makes accessible the harbors of the west coast for a 

 period of about four of the warmest months of the year. Spitsber- 

 gen pack refers to the ice which in the winter moves westward past 

 the south cape of Spitsbergen, and which generally blocks the north- 

 eastern quadrant throughout the sunnner. Such of the pack as lies 

 southward of a line Spitsbergen-Franz Josef Land to Nicholas II 

 Land, including the Kara Sea. and east to Cape Chelj'uskin, drains 

 into the Atlantic through the northern part of the Barents Sea and 

 south past Spitsbergen. During winter and early spring the Spits- 

 bergen pack is swollen by the break-up of fields in the Barents Sea 

 and is. therefore, at its fiood. During this season the pack may 

 spread so far to the south as to inclose Bear Island for a month or 

 more at a time. But the continuity of the Spitsbergen pack is always 

 threatened by the inthrust of warm waters from the Atlantic. The 

 first encroachment of spring severs the pack and forms open water 

 in the offing of the west coast. The ice in Barents Sea with the 

 I)rogress of spring and summer retreats steadily northward until 

 it persists only in the shelter to the northeast of Spitsbergen. In 

 this last region, on the line of conflict of such opposing forces, ice 

 conditions are subject to wide fluctuations. Despite the warm current 

 the great productivity of the area to the eastward guarantees in most 

 years a generous supply of ice to the great east Greenland pack. 

 Those particularlv interested in the Spitsbergen area are referred to 

 Hoel (1929) ; Iversen (1927) ; Kolchak (1909) ; and Makarov (1901). 



The East Greenland Pack 



Pack ice is seldom, if ever, absent from the waters of northeast 

 Greenland and the Greenland Sea. The east Greenland pack is 

 fed b}' (a) the direct discharge from the Arctic Ocean; (b) by the 

 ice from the Barents and Kara Seas; (c) b}' winter ice formed in 

 the Greenland Sea; and (c/) by fast ice made locally along the coast. 

 The ice from all these separate regions is alike in general character 

 and appearance, except that from the polar basin which, as already 

 described, is easih' distinguishable. This old, heavy ocean pack 

 fills the northwestern sector of the Greenland Sea but the major 

 portion of the covering of the latter consists of younger, lighter 

 fields. 



Wintrr Avitnesses the influx of heavy pans and floes into the 

 Greenland Sea reinforced by great quantities of ice formed locally. 

 This accunndation s])reads gradually southward along the coast of 

 east Greerdand initiating in successive months the beginning of the 

 ice season. Throughout the winter and spring large masses of the 

 ordinary pack, together with some of the Arctic Ocean type, con- 

 tinue to push southwai'd. and to spread away from the coast. Den- 

 maik Strait is normally more or less choked in spring, while in 

 a bad year the ice com))letely encircles the northern coast of Iceland 

 at that season. Tlie boundary of the ice cover in spring displays a 

 charactei-istic tendency to spread eastward iunnediately north of 

 Iceland where it proljably comes under the control of the east Ice- 

 land current. An equally impressive feature is a V-shaped re- 

 tienchment iunnediately west of Spitsbergen, an immistakable effect 

 of the warm (iulf stream drift. The average outer limit of the 

 cast (ircculaiid |)a(k in spi'ina' runs from the embayment near 



