INTRODUCTION. 23 



products of Northern Siberia.^ Finally, last year a Russian 

 expedition was sent out to endeavour to reach Wrangel's Land 

 from Behring's Straits. According to communications in the 

 newspapers, it was prevented by ice from sailing thence, as 

 well as from sailing far to the west. 



Information has been obtained through Mr. SibiriakofF, from 

 North Siberia, regarding the state of the ice in the neighbour- 

 ing sea. The hunting in these regions appears to have now 

 fallen off so seriously, that only few persons were found who 

 could give any answers to the questions put. 



Thus in Yakoutsk there was only one man (a priest) who 

 had been at the coast of the Polar Sea. He states that when 

 the wind blows off the land the sea becomes free of ice, but 

 that the ice comes back when the wind blows on to the land, 

 and thereby exposes the vessels which cannot reach a safe 

 harbour to great dans^er. 



Another correspondent states, on the ground of observa- 

 tions made during Tschikanovski's expedition, that in 1875 the 

 sea off the Olonek was coniplctely free of ice, but adds at the 

 same time that the year in this respect was an exceptional one. 

 The Arctic Ocean, not only in summer, but also during winter, 

 is occasionally free of ice, and at a distance of 200 versts from the 

 coast, the sea is open even in winter, in what direction, however, 

 is uncertain. The latter fact is also confirmed by Wrangel's 

 journeys with dog-sledges on the ice in 1821-1823. 



A third person says, " According to the information which I 

 have received, the north coast, from the mouth of the Lena to 

 that of the Lidigirka, is free from ice from July to September. 

 The north wind drives the ice towards the coast, but not in 

 large masses. According to the observations of the men who 

 search for mammoth tusks, the sea is open as far as the 

 southern part of the New Siberia Islands. It is probable that 

 these islands form a protection against the ice in the Werchnojan 

 region. It is otherwise on the Kolyma coast ; and if the 

 Kolyma can be reached from Behring's Straits, so certainly can 

 the Lena." 



The circumstance that the ice during summer is driven from 

 the coast by southerly winds, yet not so far but that it returns, 

 in larger or smaller quantity, with northerly winds, is further 

 confirmed by other correspondents, and appears to me to 

 show that the New Siberian Islands and Wrangel's Land only 

 form links in an extensive group of islands, running parallel with 

 the north coast of Siberia, which, on the one hand, keeps the 

 ice from the intermediate sea from drifting away altogether, and 

 favours the formation of ice during winter, but, on the other 



' Petermann s Mlttheiliiiigen, 1868, p. 1, and 1869, p. 32. 



