CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 



91 



Average number of miles traveled by the irind during 1878, 1879, and 1880. 



Month. 



Jannary .. 

 February . 



March 



April 



May 



Juno 



July 



August ... 

 September 

 October .. 

 November 

 I December 



Monthly aver- 

 age number 

 of miles. 



7.906 

 8.604 

 7.648 

 8.029 

 7.774 

 7.078 

 7.455 

 9.234 

 8.388 

 10. 642 

 9.739 

 8.993 



Average of 



maximum hour 



ly velocity. 



61 



61.6 



50 



60.3 



64 



36 



49.3 



64.7 



55.7 



66 



58.7 



66.6 



The most windy portion of the year is from the 1st of August to December, culminating in 

 October. 



In the four years preceding April 30, 1881, the highest hourly velocity was 78 miles in April, 

 1879. The greatest amount traveled for any single month was 12,598 miles in March, 1880, a 

 mouth remarkable for the great amount of snowfall and accompanying gales. The least amount 

 for any month was 3,961 miles in March, 1879, a cold but clear and pleasant month. Heavy gales 

 appear to be rather irregularly distributed through the year, with a time of moderate winds in 

 March, and during May, June, and a portion of July. Autumn appears to be a time of severe 

 gales, especially in October and November. These gales, driving blinding clouds of snow before 

 them, and at a temperature in the neighborhood of or below zero, are by no means uncommon- 

 Before these even the hardy fur-traders and the natives shrink in dread, and frost-bites are the 

 certain result of braving them, while in several instances natives have perished in these chilling 

 blasts. During summer there blows at times a fitful wind from seaward to the land, which is 

 apparently an aspirated breeze (after rising to a light gale) caused by warm ascending currents in 

 the interior. Of the many storms occurring during the year, by far the greatest number are from 

 the south and north, rising in nearly equal number from each of these directions. With the 

 storms opening with a north wind may be classed those starting with a northeast wind, and with 

 the storms opening with a south wind may be placed those rising from the southwest, as they 

 appear to be very similar in their course and duration. Storms rising in any quarter from 

 southwest to west, and thus to north, are of great variety, while from the other points of the 

 compass they are common and especially numerous from the northeast and south. It is commonly 

 observed, however, that the north and south gales may be classed in one set, and the easterly 

 gales in another, with a third and anomalous set from westerly quarters. The easterly gales 

 continue for this period with little change in direction, as a rule, and as the gale clears away the 

 wind frequently remains unchanged, and this storm is ended and no further effect need be 

 appreheuded. With the storms from the north or south, however, it is quite different, for a gale 

 may begin by the wind becoming steady south and rising rapidly, and may continue any length of 

 time up to several days, then the gale dies away sometimes quite abruptly, and a calm or period 

 of light or variable winds lasting from an hour to a day or more may occur, when the wind 

 becomes fixed in the north and rises with more or less rapidity, according to the manner of the 

 end of the preceding gale. This gale passes through a course about equaling the corresponding 

 one from the south, and, as it dies away, we see the last of this storm; sometimes one follows 

 another in a series lasting a month or longer. There is generally more or less precipitation 

 attending the gales from the east and south. About an equal number of storms begin with a 

 north or northeast wind, followed by a calm and a change of the wind to an easterly or southerly 

 direction. In a number of cases the gale from one direction may be followed by a stiff breeze from 

 the other, while in many cases the storm may only show its passage by the gale from a single 

 direction. It is only a small percentage of cases that storm winds in passing from north to south 

 or south to north change by the west, nearly always moving to the east. 



