ARCTIC OCEANOGRAPHY 9 



phenomena do not indicate the existence of land within the unex- 

 plored area," and like Fjeldstad he thinks that the tidal wave travels 

 directly across the North Polar Sea from the Spitsbergen-Greenland 

 opening to Alaska without meeting obstructions formed by extensive 

 masses of land. 



The Amundsen-Ellsworth-Nobile airship expedition in 1926 

 across the Arctic Basin seems to confirm the correctness of this view, 

 as no land was seen on the route from Spitsbergen via the north pole 

 to Alaska; but we do not know whether the sea over which the flight 

 took place was deep or shallow, and the possibility still exists that 

 there may be a submarine continental mass in some part of this re- 

 gion, e. g. extending north from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. 



Surface Currents and Ice Drifts 



The surface currents and the drift of the ice in the North Polar 

 Sea exhibit certain features which are somewhat puzzling. The 

 sea currents on the northern hemisphere are deflected to the right by 

 the earth's rotation and will, as a rule, run along the continental 

 coasts or continental shelf with the land on their right-hand side. In 

 an enclosed sea like the North Polar Sea we might therefore expect 

 that the surface currents would have a cyclonic movement eastwards 

 along the continental shelf north of Siberia as well as north of America. 

 But all observations seem to indicate a drift of the ice very nearly 

 in the opposite direction north of Alaska and Siberia. The Karluk 

 drifted in 1913 from the sea north of Point Barrow towards the sea 

 northwest of Wrangel Island; the Jeannette and the Maud drifted 

 from the latter region towards the sea northwest of the New Siberian 

 Islands; and the Fram drifted from the sea north of the New Siberian 

 Islands to the sea north of Spitsbergen. The drift routes of these ships 

 thus seem to indicate an anticyclonic movement of the ice drift and 

 the surface current. 



This direction of the current is extremely difficult to explain. 

 The drift of the ice is to a very considerable extent caused by the 

 winds, and the prevailing winds in these regions are doubtless easterly 

 and southeasterly. But, owing to the earth's rotation, we might ex- 

 pect that the moving ice would be deflected towards the right of the 

 direction of the winds, until it met with resistance from a coast or 

 a continental shelf, and would then follow along the coast of the 

 land or the "submarine coast" of the shelf, keeping it on its right- 

 hand side. This would be in accordance with what is observed in 

 other regions of the northern hemisphere. During the drift of the 

 Fram across the North Polar Sea from 1893 to 1896 the direction 

 of the moving ice for shorter periods, with few exceptions, deviated 

 to the right of the direction of the shifting winds, and generally the 



