THE REGION OF MAXIMUM INACCESSIBILITY IN THE 



ARCTIC * 



BY VILHJALMUR STEFANSSON 



[Reprinted from The Geographical Review, Vol. IX, 

 September, 1920, No. 9.] 



Most people imagine that the degi'ee of inaccessibility of polar re- 

 gions depends mainly on latitude. This is not true, nor is the problem 

 so simple that it can be stated briefly. Neither are the facts suffi- 

 ciently known as yet for a final and correct aiiswer. But we do under- 

 stand many of the conditions that modify the problem and an approxi- 

 mate statement of them is possible. 



The main condition that determines the comparative accessibility 

 of points within the polar regions is the configuration of the lands and 

 their efi^ect upon the ocean currents. The great oceans, the Atlantic 

 and the Pacific, are similar in that each has its own warm current, 

 but they differ fundamentally in this: that the Japan current of the 

 Pacific is effectually shut out from the Arctic on that side by the 

 chain of the Aleutian Islands, so that instead of flowing north into 

 the Polar Sea to melt away the ice, it expends its heat chiefly along the 

 coast of southern Alaska and the western coast of Canada and the 

 United States, profoundly modifying the climate of those regions. But 

 in the Atlantic the Gulf Stream flows unhindered northward through 

 the wide and deep gap between Norway and Greenland, splitting on 

 Iceland and giving it a climate approximately that of Scotland. We 

 may truthfully think of the Gulf Stream as melting away the polar 

 ice (which otherwise would come down to the northern coast of Iceland) 

 with such effect that ships can sail ten or eleven degrees (or seven 

 hundred miles) farther north on the Atlantic side than they can on 

 the Pacific side of the Arctic. 



TWO STAGES OF APPROACH 



Up to the present, polar exploration has been conducted in two 

 stages. First, men sail towards the unexplored area as far as they can 

 go in ships. From this point they travel with sledges hauled by dogs 

 or men and in some cases by both. 



In connection with this article I have prepared a map showing 



* See map opposite p. 8, ante. 



731 



