THE ARCTIC PACK 139 



in question does not represent an accidental phenomenon but is in 

 close connection with local factors defining the motion of the ice in 

 this region. 



The fact that this New Siberian polynya undoubtedly is contin- 

 uous with the polynya explored by Lieutenant Wrangel that lies 

 farther southeast (which we may call the Kolyma polynya for short) is 

 sufficiently explained if the physico-geographical conditions of the 

 region of the Arctic Ocean where this polynya occurs are taken into 

 consideration.^" 



The New Siberian polynya lies on the border between the fully 

 developed coastal fast ice and that part of the edge of the Arctic Pack 

 that is close to the New Siberian Islands. The average position of the 

 edge of the Arctic Pack passes near Bennett Island (1901), but this 

 edge may come very near to the New Siberian Islands (1902) or move 

 away to beyond the latitude of Bennett Island, e.g. 77° N., as was the 

 case in 1903 during my expedition to this island. 



When speaking of the motion of the Arctic Pack, I mentioned 

 above that the exploration of this region of the Arctic Ocean gives 

 reason to suppose that the drift of the ice has a west-northwestern and 

 a northwestern direction, i.e. it moves away from the northern coast of 

 the New Siberian Islands. As a result of this motion an open space of 

 water will be found between the margin of the immovable coastal 

 fast-ice and the moving ice fields of the Arctic Pack, the size of which 

 space will stand in close connection with the position of the edge of 

 the pack. Namely, under continuous northern winds that edge may 

 closely approach the margin of the coastal fast-ice, in which case the 

 polynya will disappear and in its place there will be formed a more or 

 less hummocked, compactly joined ice cover, which, if the wind changes, 

 will again move to the north and be replaced by an area of ice-free 

 water, i.e. a polynya. Such shifting back and forth of the edge of the 

 pack continues during the whole winter, as is indicated by the charac- 

 ter of the ice heaps on the margins of the coastal fast-ice which are 

 made up of unusually heavy (up to 2 meters in thickness) broken-up 

 ice dating from April and May — heaps that are paralleled in front by 

 hummocks of ice of varying thickness. These bordering hummocks 

 are usually mixed with fragments of the many-years-old ice, and their 

 dimensions testify to the tremendous shock and pressure that takes 

 place from the side of the Arctic Ocean. 



The size of the New Siberian polynya must be greatest in winter, 

 because at that period we may assume that the edge of the Arctic 

 Pack is moved to the north by the winds that result from the distri- 

 bution of atmospheric pressure over the Asiatic continent, i.e. winds 

 predominantly from the southeast and east in December, January, 



* A more detailed discussion of the location of this polynya is contained above in Chapter 5, where 

 the development of the coastal fast-ice is dealt with. 



