THE ARCTIC PACK 127 



of the ice cover such Hmits are quite admissible because, according to 

 all data available, they define a region of the fully developed coastal 

 fast-ice [heregovoi pripai], as this does not spread far to the north of 

 Capes Zhelanie and Chelyuskin and the northern coasts of the New 

 Siberian Islands, To the north of the lines mentioned, which conven- 

 tionally limit the Kara, Siberian, and Yukagir Seas, lies an almost un- 

 explored region, which I call "the frontier region of the Arctic Pack." 

 In this region the Arctic Pack, or more correctly its outskirts, may be 

 met with near the above-mentioned conventional lines and may even 

 pass beyond them to the south. Sometimes the limit of the Arctic 

 Pack moves away to the north of this line, and then the frontier 

 region may be covered with loose mixed ice of marginal-sea and oceanic 

 origin and may even be accessible to navigation. 



Region of the Arctic Pack 



Before examining the conditions of existence of the ice cover in the 

 frontier region, it is necessary to clear up the approximate limits of 

 the Arctic Pack itself. Where it faces the seas in question the limits 

 are as follows for the following reasons [see map in preceding article]. 



Opposite Bering Strait the mean limit of the Arctic Pack may be 

 considered as running along the parallel of 7i/^° N., approximately on 

 a line extending from the northern coast of Wrangel Island to Point 

 Barrow, with considerable fluctuations between 71^° and 73° N.^ 

 This line was crossed to the north by Kellett in July, 1849, Rodgers 

 in August, 1855, Nye and Soule in 1867, and Berry in September, 

 1881, who reached nearly 73^° N. in longitude 171° W. on the 

 schooner Rodgers. 



Concerning the location of the limit of the pack west of Wrangel 

 Island we have no exact data. However, Lieutenant Wrangel's 

 sledge excursions in 1822 northward from the shores of the Kolyma 

 region, excursions which determined the proportions of the fully 

 developed coastal fast-ice; likewise those of Lieutenant Anjou in 1822 

 to the east of the New Siberian Islands; as also the Jeannette's drift 

 under Lieutenant De Long's command in 1880 in the region of the 

 mobile Arctic Pack — these all give some foundation for supposing that 

 the southern margin of the pack lies to the north of the above-men- 



ography of the Kara and Siberian Seas, Hydro-Meteorological Section, Hydrographic Office, Petro- 

 grad, 1918, introduction by Y. M. Shokalskii, p. 8). 



As to the northeastern boundary of the Kara Sea physical limits may now be substituted for Kol- 

 chak's conventional line, namely Northern Land and its possible western termination in lat. 79° N. and 

 long. 82° E. as deduced by Wiese from the drift of the St. Anna (see, above, Dr. Nansen's paper, foot- 

 note 2, p. 5; on the bathymetric map accompanying that paper the current terminology here discussed 

 is indicated). — Edit. Note.) 



2 Report of Ice and Ice Movements in Bering Sea and the Arctic Basin by Ensign Edward Simp- 

 son, U. S. N., U. S. Hydrogr. Office, Washington, i8go. See the map accompanying this report: The 

 Arctic Sea, Wrangel Island to Mackenzie River, showing the northern limit of the southern edge of the 

 ice pack in the years 1879 and 1885-1889. 



