[QI5. No. 2. SPITSBERGEN WATERS. 93 



Later explorations have not disproved the correctness of this view, 

 neither the one way nor the other. Mikkelsen and Leffingwell found 

 comparativeh- deep water (620 metres (339 fathoms) with no bottom) to the 

 north of Alaska (north of 7i°2o'X), indicating a narrow continental shelf 

 in that region, as assumed by the writer, and they saw no indications of 

 land. The Stephanson Expedition to Bank Land, and the drift of his ship 

 have given no indication of extensive unknown land in that region. Pearv 

 found no land north of Grant Land (Ellesmere Land) and Greenland. The 

 continental shelf was obser\-ed as far north as Latitude 83° 53'. He found 

 a deep sea near the North Pole, the soundings of his part}* giving no 

 bottom at 1260 fathoms (2304 metresi in 87° 15' N, and no bottom at 

 1500 fathoms (2743 metresi about five miles from the Pole. The existence 

 of Crocker Land, that Peary thought he had seen to the north of Axel 

 Heiberg Land, has not been verified. 



All this does not prove, however, that there ma}- not be a wide con- 

 tinental shelf, with unknown lands to the north of the American Arctic 

 archipelago, on the contrary I consider this probable. 



As was mentioned before, new islands have been found in the region 

 north-west of Cape Chelyuskin, and the continental shelf is there extending 

 far north, be3'ond 81 ° N. As to the vast regions between the New Siberian 

 Islands (or Bennett Island), Parry Islands and Alaska we know nothing, but 

 the possibility that there may be a wide extension of the continental 

 shelves, also with unknown lands, is not excluded. 



According to the investigations described above we have arrived at 

 the conclusion that the salinity of the deep-water of the North Polar Basin 

 is about 34.91 ^ 00- This also agrees well with the salinities of tlie water- 

 samples (from 300 and 350 metres) collected by Admiral Makaroff in the 

 sea east and south-east of Franz Joseph Land [Nansen. 1906. p. 51]. 



According to the determinations in the writers laboratory. Makaroffs 

 observations and samples gave die following values: 



It seems probable that the depths where these samples were taken 

 communicate direcdy with the deep North Polar Basin, and this water at 

 Makaroft's stations was evidentlv verv simular to that which the writer 



