PREFACE 



Over each polar region of the earth lies a great cap of heavy ice. 

 During winter it grows and builds, expanding to a maximum volume ; 

 spring and summer witnesses its melting and retreat to a permanent 

 central core. Throughout the year, however, cold ocean currents 

 from out of the north bear the fragmented ice border to lower lati- 

 tudes. This paper embraces a stucl}^ of Arctic ice from the freezing 

 of the water and its accumulation of snow through the various stages 

 of development and re-formation to its final melting and distribu- 

 tion to the Xorth Atlantic Ocean. The present treatise is mainly 

 jn'ompted by the writer's interest in the ice as it constitutes a grave 

 navigational menace to the North Atlantic Ocean. 



Our knowledge regarding the regional distribution of the ice, its 

 state, behavior, and paths of drift has been accumulated over a long 

 period of years; first, through the early voyages of exploration as 

 maritime countries searched and pressed on for new territorial 

 possessions and trade enrichment. These masters and navigators, 

 finding the northern regions so commonly inaccessible, mainly on 

 account of the dangers and barriers of ice, naturally recorded their 

 experiences, gradually building up a history of the subject. Many 

 of the early explorers were also endowed with scientific attainments 

 and a keen appreciation of the value of accumulating all possible 

 knowledge on the ice problems of the Arctic. The development of 

 science later led to combining voyages of exploration with those hav- 

 ing scientific objects and finally, in the more recent pages of history, 

 we find expeditions setting forth equipped with excellent laboratories 

 and a highly trained scientific staff, solely to gather knowledge free 

 from economic bias. 



Legends and sagas of the Scandinavians and other northern people 

 devote much space to the struggle with ice. Historical records com- 

 mence with the early gropings of the British and the Dutch to the 

 seas north of Europe, and closely on the heels of northeastern dis- 

 coveries came the unfolding of the northwestern North Atlantic. 

 The sea ice and icebergs drifting southward out of Baffin Bay and 

 Davis Strait were phenomena known to sailors and men of science 

 even before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. Even after the Revo- 

 lutionary War of the American colonies European enterprise was 

 still actively engaged in discovering a northwest passage and a short 

 route to the Orient. The early attempts at finding a northwest 

 passage to India were followed by fur trading and whale fishing 

 activities in tlie AVest Greenland and Canadian Arctic sectors. Much 

 of our knowledge regarding the sea ice of Baffin Bay and the Ameri- 

 can Arctic Archipelago has been contributed by the whale industries 

 of tlie Dutch, the English, and the Americans which flourished over 

 a period of two centuries. The northwestern section also experienced 

 great activity during the middle of the nineteenth century as a result 

 of the prolonged search for Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated 



