202 EJNAR MIKKELSEN. 
of the pack-ice gets so steady as to make its appearance impossible, 
except after the disturbance in the drift caused by a gale. It seems. 
to confirm the theory put forth by Amprup! that the ice from Shan- 
non Island ard northward rather close under land should drift at a 
lesser rate than at the outside of the pack. But it is difficult to see 
the cause of this slow drift, as there is no known shoal in that vicinity, 
which might stop the pack-ice. The explanation must — as inferred by 
AMDRUP? — be sought in the currents, and it may be that this is the 
approximate locality, where the branch of the Polar current (the one 
inside Belgica Shoal) meets the main current. 
The influence of the different winds on the pack-ice as noticed 
from land. 
By far the most predominating winds on the east coast of Greenland 
are the northerly ones, and their effect on the ice is absolutely tending 
to close it up. It has been noticed, during a period of three years, that 
the openings between the pack-ice close, and that the pack-ice itself 
comes nearer to land, when there is a wind from NNW to ENE or pos- 
sibly even to the East. But the tendency to close up the pack-ice and 
force it on land seems much greater during the summer than during 
the winter, and this may probably be explained by the fact that there 
is, as a rule, more open water between the pack-ice during the summer 
than during the winter, and the wind will consequently be able to 
move the single floes about and pack them together with greater ease, 
than when — as during the winter — it is a nearly compact body, which. 
has to be moved by the wind. 
Southerly winds and winds even as easterly as ESE will, as a rule, 
open up the pack-ice and set it away from land, and this in spite of the 
fact that the wind is right on land, and the only time, when this wind 
failed to have this effect on the pack-ice, was during the summer of 
1911, when permanent northerly gales had packed the ice hard on land, 
and the icebelt was very broad and dense. 
A SW—W wind will always blow the ice away from the coast and 
clear the coastwater of drifting ice, if the pack outside is not too dense, 
while a 
NW wind — almost right off land — will not always clear out 
the ice. 
A general rule regarding the influence of the winds on the ice is 
the following: 
that all winds from a direction north of E—W will trend to close: 
up the pack and coastwater, while 
1 Medd. om Grønland, vol. XX VII, pag. 142 and 143. 
2 ibid. pag. 141. 
