5- No. 2. SPITSBERGEN WATERS. 93 



Later explorations have not disproved the correctness of this view, 

 neither the one way nor the other. Mikkelsen and Leffingwell found 

 comparatively deep water (620 metres (339 fathoms) with no bottom) to the 

 north of Alaska (north of 7i2o'N), indicating a narrow continental shelf 

 in that region, as assumed by the writer, and they saw no indications of 

 land. The Stephanson Expedition to Bank Land, and the drift of his ship 

 have given no indication of extensive unknown land in that region. Peary 

 found no land north of Grant Land (Ellesmere Land) and Greenland. The 

 continental shelf was observed as far north as Latitude 83 53'. He found 

 a deep sea near the North Pole, the soundings of his party giving no 

 bottom at 1260 fathoms (2304 metres) in 87 15' N, and no bottom at 

 1500 fathoms (2743 metres) about five miles from the Pole. The existence 

 of Crocker Land, that Peary thought he had seen to the north of Axel 

 Heiberg Land, has not been verified. 



All this does not prove, however, that there may not be a wide con- 

 tinental shelf, with unknown lands to the north of the American Arctic 

 archipelago, on the contrary I consider this probable. 



As was mentioned before, new islands have been found in the region 

 north-west of Cape Chelyuskin, and the continental shelf is there extending 

 far north, beyond 81 N. As to the vast regions between the New Siberian 

 Islands (or Bennett Island), Parry Islands and Alaska we know nothing, but 

 the possibility that there may be a wide extension of the continental 

 shelves, also with unknown lands, is not excluded. 



According to the investigations described above we have arrived at 

 the conclusion that the salinity of the deep-water of the North Polar Basin 

 is about 34.91 / 00 - This also agrees well with the salinities of the water- 

 samples (from 300 and 350 metres) collected by Admiral Makaroff in the 

 sea east and south-east of Franz Joseph Land [NANSEN, 1906, p. 51]. 



According to the determinations in the writers laboratory, MakarofFs 

 observations and samples gave the following values: 



It seems probable that the depths where these samples were taken 

 communicate directly with the deep North Polar Basin, and this water a^ 

 Makaroff's stations was evidently very simular to that which the writer 



