532 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEinTION. 



at tlie Pole can be accepted. In the icy sea tliere are 

 everywhere small and large places free from ice caused by 

 local circumstances, so that often, even from a high 

 mountain, nothing but water may be seen in one par- 

 ticular direction. 



Dove's Isothermal chart gives a temperature of 5° 

 under the Pole ; we may, therefore, assume that here it 

 is more likely to be lower than higher. Even in the 

 warmest months it rises but a few degrees above freezing. 

 Thus in the Spitzbergen Sea Scoresby, in 78° N. Lat., 

 which is still under the influence of the warm current, 

 finds, after twelve years' observation, the following tempe- 

 ratures ;— May, 23° Fahr.; June, 31°; July, 36°. We 

 found in our winter harbour, under Sabine Island, April, 

 2° Fah-r.; May, 22°; June, 36°; July, 39°; August, 33°; 

 September, 24°. 



In such temperatures the sea will freeze nine months 

 in the year in the open ocean ; and amongst the high 

 ice-fields in a calm at midnight, when the sun is at its 

 lowest, in every month of the year ice is forming, so that 

 the influence of the sun alone is not sufficient to destroy 

 what is formed in the winter. Under such conditions it 

 is clear that in a completely enclosed sea no open spaces 

 of water could obtain ; in a few years they would be per- 

 manently covered with ice. Such a condition is, how- 

 ever, nowhere found within the Arctic basin, for the 

 simple reason that its waters are not enclosed, but stand 

 connected with the Atlantic Ocean by a powerful arm of 

 the sea. 



Strong currents, combined with raging winds in the 

 winter, are the cause of the breaking up of the otherwise 

 firm ice, so that tlie Arctic basin may be compared to a 



