CEUISE OF STEAMER COBWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 133 



As this wasting and melting goes on all through tbe polar regions, tin- southern limit of the 

 pack, under the influence of the Bering Strait current, the outset from the large rivers and the 

 innumerable small streams formed by the melting snow, which empty into the Arctic Ocean, is 

 pressed to the northward, closing the open spaces in the pack, and leaving the lower part of the 

 sea comparatively free of ice. In the latter part of September and October northeast and north- 

 west »ales prevail. These force the heavy ice down from the north and on to the shores of each 

 continent, and sometimes entirely through Bering Strait, leaving open leads and water-holes to 

 the north. Now, however, these are soon filled with new ice, which holds the pack in the southerly 

 position until the melting and wasting of the following season begins and allows it to retreat to 

 the nortnward again. 



In the Greenland and Nova Zembla seas, according to' the observations of the early naviga- 

 tors and others, the southern limit of the pack is generally found from the seventy-sixth to the 

 seventy-eighth degree of north latitude; but in what are called "open" seasons navigable water 

 extends to 81° 30'. In 1594 William Barentz encountered pack ice between Spitzbergen and Nova 

 Zembla, referring to which, he says: •• We came to so great a heap of ice that we could not sayle 

 through it." 



In the year 1C07 Henry Hudson, in a poorly-fitted vessel of only 50 tons, sailed to latitude 81° 

 31' in the Spitzbergen seas, where he encountered impenetrable ice and returned home, reporting 

 on his arrival the impossibility of reaching the Pole by this route, as the sea was filled with ice. 

 Scoresby, in 1800, reached the same latitude in the vicinity of Spitzbergen, but was prevented from 

 proceeding farther by the ice. In 1828 Parry, during his attempt to reach the North Pole by boats, 

 encountered the pack in latitude 81° 13', and by almost superhuman efforts succeeded, by dragging 

 his boats oxer the ice, in reaching latitude Si' 45'. 



In 1874 the Teghetoff was beset in latitude 70° 22', and after two years helpless drifting in the 

 frozen ocean, was abandoned by her people, who, on their retreat towards the coast of Nova Zembla, 

 encountered open water in latitude 77° 49'. 



In September, 1879, the Dutch Arctic exploring schooner William Barentz sighted Franz 

 Joseph Land on the meridian of 55 east longitude. In 1881 the same vessel found heavy ice in 

 latitude 78° north, longitude 05° east, and between the meridians of 45° and 33° east she found 

 the ice as far south as latitude 76° 30'. 



We know by the accounts of all Arctic navigators, from the earliest dates of which we have 

 any record down to the present time, that the region surrounding the Pole, so far as it has been 

 penetrated, is filled with the heavy ice already described, except in the immediate vicinity of land, 

 and there it is opeu but a few weeks in the summer. Hence we see. that the northern limit of navi- 

 gation depends upon the northern limit of the land. All attempts to ignore this fact have resulted 

 iu disastrous failures. The same is true of sledging. According to the best authorities, in the 

 absence of continuous land, sledge-traveling has never yet been found practicable over any con- 

 siderable extent of uniuclosed frozen sea, although conditions may be found to exist which would 

 enable parties to travel for limited distances by sledge and boat operations combined. We have 

 reason to think that all lands yet discovered, with the exception of Franz Joseph Land and the 

 west coast of Grinuell Laud, terminate several degrees from the Pole. It appears, therefore, that 

 these are the points towards which we must look for a higher northern latitude to be made at 

 some future time. 



The distance from the pole at which navigators have been stopped by the ice-pack varies from 

 400 to 800 miles, the former north of Davis Strait and the latter north of Bering Strait, leaving but 

 a comparatively small area unexplored in which to locate an opeu polar sea. And when we con- 

 sider that the ice pack surrounding this small area is constantly in motion, broken by expansion 

 and contraction of its own parts, due to great changes in temperature, and changes its position iu 

 obedience to currents of air and water, we must believe an open navigable polar sea an impossi- 

 bility. Even were uo ice formed within the unexplored regions, the surrounding and ever-moving 

 masses, unless prevented by barriers of great strength, must crowd iu and fill any temporarily 

 open space. 



We remained at Ounalaska cleaning boilers, coaling ship, &c, until October 4, when we sailed 

 for San Francisco at meridian. The following day, the wind blowing fresh from northeast with a 

 S. Ex. 204 18* 



