120 CRUISE OF STEAMER OORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 



forated at one end, served them as a needle, just as now. Skulls and other bones of the reindeer 

 have been found in the caves of that period still bearing the incisions made by some sharp instru- 

 ment in taking the skin from the animal. 



The shank bones are often found incised at the point where the tendon is cut at the present 

 day, showing that it had been removed for some purpose; while needles and awls of bone are said 

 to be by no means of rare occurrence. 



Under the advance of a milder climate the glaciers gradually receded to the north, closely 

 followed by the reindeer, then, as now, in search of the nutritious food which flourishes only in a 

 cold climate, until it was no longer found in Middle Europe, and finally stopped in its retreat only 

 when met by the shores of the Polar Ocean, and even then not until it had inhabited all the out- 

 lying islands. There it remains to the present day, furnishing all the necessaries of life to the human 

 beings who inhabit its regions just as it did when the reindeer men represented the highest state 

 of civilization extant, and by far the largest portion of the human race. 



ARCTIC CURRENTS. 



On account of the varied and extensive duties assigned to the Corwin and the limited tiuie 

 in which to perform them, a regular connected series of current-observations in Bering Strait 

 was not taken, as it was hoped to do. It was my intention to return for that purpose, after 

 dispatching the sledge party along the Siberian coast, early in June, but the rough treatment 

 received by the vessel in the ice-pack, resulting in the loss of rudder, &c, necessitated a change 

 of plans. It became necessary to seek a place of comparative safety with the vessel where the 

 rudder might be repaired, and to intrust the current work to a boat's crew left for the purpose on 

 the West Diomede Island. Unfortunately the boat's crew accomplished nothing. Owing to bois- 

 terous weather the boat could not be launched. So much time was consumed in making the 

 necessary repairs to the vessel, owing to the fact that the harbors were still frozen up and we 

 were compelled to do the work at sea, that I did not feel justified in remaining longer in the 

 vicinity of the straits, but pushed on to the northward as fast as the ice would permit; conse- 

 quently we were limited in our current observations to such as could be made from time to time 

 by noting the drift of the larger masses of ice by comparison of the ship's position as shown by 

 dead reckoning and that shown by observation, and by noting the velocity and direction of the 

 current when at anchor, and as we remained at anchor but little, the latter class of observations 

 were seldom taken, and never in a sufficiently connected form to be of much value. Many of our 

 observations were taken in the vicinity of the ice-pack, and as this pack, where found, occupies 

 about one-third, and in many places one-half, of the entire depth of the shallow Arctic Sea, it 

 exerts as much influence on the surface currents as a body of land of the same area; and as the 

 pack, or that portion of it which we are able to observe, is constantly changing its position, not 

 only from month to mouth in the same season, owing to the destruction of the ice by melting, 

 difference of prevailing winds, &c, but also varies its position from season to season according to 

 the amount of ice formed during the previous winter, it will readily be seen that the consequence 

 is constant change in the force and direction of the current, aud the result of one set of observa- 

 tions in the vicinity of the pack is but slight indication of what may be found by the next 

 observer. 



In addition to these constant changes in the vicinity of the ice-pack other difficulties are 

 encountered in making observations on the curreuts while a vessel is cruising from place to place. 

 Owing to almost constant fog it frequently occurs that several days pass without an observation 

 for position. Then, if a difference is fouud to exist between the position by dead reckoning and 

 that by observation, which can only be accounted for as a current, it is impossible to determine in 

 what part of the ship's track the current was encountered, how much is due to tidal current, and 

 how much to wind. There is yet another difficulty encounteied by navigators iu high latitudes 

 which bears upon the subject, that of accurately determining the ship's position by observation 

 even in clear weather. This difficulty arises from several causes. The great amount of refrac- 

 tion and consequent difficulty of obtaining a true horizou aud the slow change in altitudes of 

 the heavenly bodies, their change of position being almost entirely in azimuth, the apparent 



