5S THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



withstanding the fact that the effect in question becomes a maximum at the 

 Pole. 



At Bennett Island and at Teplitz Bay, Franz Josef Land, the range of 

 the diurnal wave has about one-half of the magnitude which the tidal 

 forces acting over an uninterrupted Arctic basin would produce. 



The semidaily tides found in the Arctic Ocean are derived almost 

 entirely from those of the North Atlantic, because the semidaily forces 

 vanish at the Pole and are very small in the higher latitudes. These tides 

 enter the Arctic Ocean proper by way of the strait lying between Spitzbergen 

 and the eastern coast of northern Greenland. They are propagated through 

 the Arctic to the New Siberian Islands, the average rise and fall at Bennett 

 Island being 2.5 feet. 1 Now upon the assumption of an uninterrupted Arctic 

 basin, the tides at Point Barrow and at Flaxman Island could not differ 

 gieatly in size from the tides which would, upon the same assumption, be 

 found at Bennett Island. But as a matter of fact the rise and fall of the 

 semidaily tide is 0.4 foot at Point Barrow and 0.5 foot at Flaxman Island. 

 The rise and fall of the semidaily tides at Pitlekaj, a short distance northwest 

 of Bering Strait, is 0.2 foot. 



The time of the semidaily tide along the northern coast of Alaska does 

 not agree with the time implied in the transmission of the tide wave from 

 the Greenland Sea through an uninterrupted polar basin having such depths 

 as those discovered by Nansen. 



It being thus established that an obstruction in the Arctic Ocean exists 

 which seriously interferes with the production of the diurnal tides in its 

 waters, and moreover causes wide discrepancies between the amount of rise 

 and fall of the semidaily tide at Bennett Island and that found along the 

 northern coast of Alaska, the next questions relate to its size and disposition. 



That one corner lies northerly from Bennett Island and is separated from 



1 Suggestion concerning tidal observations. — The reading of hourly or half-hourly 

 heights upon a vertical fixed staff, even if for a period no longer than one, two or three 

 days would, in many instances, be of great interest. To judge of the diurnal tide, the time 

 selected should be at or near the time of the moon's farthest north or south. It requires 

 a series of fifteen or thirty days for bringing out the principal tidal constituents. If 

 fluctuations in the daily level are to be ascertained, the longer the series the better. 



With the exception of Bennett Island and Pitlekaj, there is at present little or no tidal 

 information available along the Arctic coast of Siberia, or upon the off -lying islands, from 

 Taimir Peninsula to Bering Strait, although the Russian government has recently made tidal 

 observations at Taimir Bay and on one of the New Siberian Islands. Aside from this ex- 

 tended coast line and off-lying islands, where observations would of course be of great value, 

 the localities where information is especially wanted in this connection are: the northwestern 

 coast of Alaska about midway between Point Hope and Point Barrow, Mackenzie Delta 

 (outer coast), Cape Bathurst, west coast of Banks Island, western end of McClure Strait, 

 Prince Patrick Island, Cape Isaachsen, western coast of Axel Heiberg Island, Cape Thomas 

 Hubbard, and northwestern coast of Grant Land. 



From Arctic Tides already referred to, it can be seen what localities are either wanting 

 or are especially defective in reliable tidal data, and where, if data were secured, a service 

 would be rendered in perfecting our knowledge of the tides. Such points and localities in 

 the Arctic Archipelago are the following: Dolphin and Union Strait, Coronation Gulf, 

 Prince of Wales Strait, Eureka Sound, Nansen Sound, Greely Fiord, McClintock Channel, 

 northern side of Cumberland Peninsula, and the eastern shore of Fox Channel. 



