76 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



after reviewing the data as to ice conditions in this part 

 of the world collected from the year 1610 to 1881, sums 

 up in the following words: 



''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 Uable to close at any time by a wind blowing 

 on shore. . . . Along the American continent we 

 have much the same condition — the navigable channel 

 along the shore and the pack in the offing. . . . The 

 ice-pack is generally found near Icy Cape on the east side 

 of the Arctic Basin, and near Cape North (Irkaipy) on 

 the west side, the southern edge of the pack forming 

 an irregular curve between those places. ... 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 tempera- 

 ture, is constantly in motion, and with the temperature 

 above the freezing point, a continued 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. 



"As this wasting and melting goes on all through the 

 polar regions, the southern hmit 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 



