Notes on the sea-ice along the east coast of Greenland. 209 
1903. “Зезтепе” 4/,—*"/, from 74° N. Lat: to 71° М. Lat. 
Distance 180 miles in 12 days, average 15 miles per day. 
1907. “Scotia” drifts from 79° N. Lat. towards SW. at about 17 miles 
daily, Wind NW. 
“Laura” drifts ?°/,—*°/, from 72° М. Lat. to 68° 50’ N. Lat. and 
17°20’ W. Long. Distance about 190 miles in 40 days. Average 4,7. 
BR Laura: dnfts’*, from 74 N.Lat. to 70° 57’ N. ав. De 
stance 210 miles (straight line) in 36 days. Average 5,8. 
If the windings in the course line are included, which are pro- 
bably due to the wind, the distance will be 270 miles, giving 
an average speed of 7,5 miles daily. 
These 10 different drifts must — as stated above — be divided into 
two classes, one where the drift has taken place under land, the other 
where the drift hastaken place further out towards the edge of the pack-ice. 
The material, on the strenght of which the velocity of the drift 
under land has been determined, consists of 4 different cases, where ships 
have been beset close under land, namely "Hansa” 1869, “Sostrene” 
1903, “Laura” 1907 and 1911. The velocity with which these four drifts 
have taken place are respectively 4,6, 15,0, 4,7 and 5,8 pr. day, giving 
a daily average of 7,5 miles. This average is probably greater than 
the actual one, as the velocity of the drift of the “Sostrene’? is so much 
greater than any of the other drifts. In this connection it must be con- 
sidered that the ship was only beset for twelve days, that the point 
of departure as well as the place of arrival is uncertain within the distance 
of about 25 miles, and that the year of 1903 had exceptionally good 
ice-conditions with much open water between the floes, which of course 
would accelerate the drift of a ship in a norhterly storm, as there was 
room for the ice to be compressed. 
Leaving the “Sostrene” out of the question 5,0 miles becomes the 
average daily drift-velocity for ships beset under land, and this velocity 
can probably be taken as a fair average af the speed of the arctic current 
close under land. 
The other drifts along the outer edge of the pack-ice are still more 
unsatisfactory, at any rate as far as getting a fair average is concerned, 
as the velocities are very variable and the material scanty. 
The drift, unfortunately unsupported, which gives the best general 
idea of the velocity of the drifts, is the one of the whaling-fleet, which 
in 1777 became beset in the ice on 79° N. Lat.?. These vessels drifted 
to the south with a daily rate of about 12 miles. 
1 Ice-observations 1903. 
* Geografisk Tidsskrift, 2. Bd., 1878, pag. 49. 
51T: 14 
