132 CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 



ber. In the followiug year Colliuson sailed along the north coast of America to Dease Strait, 

 following the navigable channel through which McClure had sailed, with the same impenetrable 

 pack in the offing, and returned a year later under similar circumstances. In 1855 the Arctic Basin 

 north of Bering Strait was open to latitude 72° 2' in longitude 174° 50' west. In 1861 the south- 

 ern limit of the pack was found in latitude 68° 31'. The seasons of 1865, '66. '67 appear to have 

 been remarkably open north of Bering Strait. In the latter year many of the whalers went as 

 far north as 72° 30'; one reached 73° 5', in longitude 173° 30'. Several went around Poiut Barrow 

 and some nearly to the Mackenzie River, where they remained until the 15th of September. The 

 strait between Wrangel Island and the coast of Siberia was nearby free from ice in August of that 

 year. 



During the summer of 1878 the steamer Vega made the passage along the north coast of Asia, 

 encountering drift-ice most of the way, and sighting the pack many times. The Vega passed the 

 Taimyr Peninsula, the most northern poiut of the Asiatic continent, on the 20th of August, steam- 

 ing through drift-ice, and arrived at a point on the Tchuktchi Peninsula, about 100 miles from 

 Bering Strait, on the 27th of September, where she was frozen in and held a prisoner until the 

 18th day of July, 1879, when she was released by the breaking up of the ice, and passed south 

 through Bering Strait the following day, the first and only vessel up to the present time to make 

 the passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific by the north coast of Asia, commonly called the 

 "Northeast Passage." In 1880 the first whalers passed through Beriug Strait on the 22d of May. 

 The same year the Corwin encountered ice on the east shore of Bering Sea on the J lth of June, in 

 latitude 60° 50', and after battling with it for ten days reached Saint Michael's with no other 

 damage than the loss of her screw steering gear. 



On the 29th of June the Corwin passed through Bering Strait and made the circuit of the 

 navigable sea north of the strait, keeping the pack in sight. This navigable sea was of an oval 

 form, about 200 miles by 100 in extent, its major axis lying in the direction of northwest and south- 

 east. The Corwin entered Kotzebue Sound on the 14th of July through heavy drift ice, and reached 

 Point Barrow on the 25th of August, the pack at that time being about 4 miles off shore. 



On May 30, 1881, the Corwin passed through Bering Strait, and on June 1, by following a lead 

 into the pack over 100 miles, she reached latitude 68° 20', in longitude 176°, where she was caught 

 in the ice during a blinding snow-storm, and barely escaped with the loss of her rudder. On the 

 13th of July Kotzebue Sound was found free from ice. On the 30th of July the Corwin reached 

 Herald Island through heavy drift-ice, and on the 12th of August she reached Wrangel Island 

 under the same circumstances. On the 15th of August of that year the whalers reached Point 

 Barrow, the ice having left the shore only on the day before. 



It will be seen by the foregoing that from the earliest date of which we have any account, the 

 ice-pack has remained permanently near the north coast of the Asiatic continent. Generally a 

 narrow lead of navigable water exists along the shore during the month of August and part of 

 September. This lead is partly filled with broken ice, and is liable to close at any time by a wind 

 blowing on shore. The Taimyr Peninsula, extending from latitude 73° north to latitude 77° 40', 

 is bounded on the east, west, and north by the ice-pack. In summer the ice is detached from the 

 land by the small streams of water which everywhere trickle down its banks, but always remain 

 near. I can find no record of this peninsula being entirely free from ice. Along the American 

 continent we have much the same condition — the navigable channel along the shore and the pack 

 in the offing. Indeed, it is no unusual thing for the ice to remain "hard and fast" on the shore 

 as far south as Icy Cape for several seasons in succession. The ice-pack is generally found near 

 Icy Cape on the east side of the Arctic Basin, and near Cape North on the west side, the southern 

 edge of the pack forming an irregular curve between those places. In exceptional seasons large 

 fields of drift ice are found south of this curve, but generally this part of the sea is free from ice in 

 August and September. It must not be supposed, however, that the ice which fills this sea and 

 extends south into Bering Sea during the winter months, is all melted during the short season of 

 warm weather. The ice-pack, which is at all times broken and rent by currents and by changes 

 in temperature, is constantly in motion, and with the temperature above the freezing point, a con- 

 tinued wasting away of the ice occurs, owing to the friction of its parts, aided to a certain extent 

 by the direct rays of the sun and by evaporation. 



