become the shallow depths of the Barents Sea gradually, without a sill. The same may be said of 

 the strait between Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya, which connects the Barents and Kara Seas. 



(2) The Arctic Basin lies between the northern coast of Asia, the eastern shores of Novaya 

 Zemlya, the northern shores of Franz Joseph Land, Spitsbergen and Greenland, the western shores 

 of EUesmere, Devon, Bathurst and Prince of Wales Islands and the northern coast of North America 

 from Boothia Peninsula to Bering Strait. 



The sea boundaries of this basin are: 



(a) the sea boundary between the Arctic and Pacific Oceans (Bering Strait) ; 



(b) the sea boundary between the Arctic Ocean and Baffin Bay; 



(c) the sea boundary between the Arctic and North European Basins, passing along the 

 submarine Nansen Sill between Nortlieast Cape (Greenland) and Amsterdam Island (Spitsbergen), 

 furtlier along the northern edgs of Spitsbergen from Cape Leigh-Smith (Spitsbergen) across Kvitoya 

 and Victoria Island to Cape Mary Harmsworth (Franz Joseph Land), then from Cape Kol'zat* to Mys 

 Zhelaniya and further along the eastern edge of Novaya Zemlya Straits. 



The Arctic Basin includes the Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, Chuckchee, Beaufort, North 

 American Channel** and Lincoln Seas. 



The total area of the Arctic Ocean (13, 100, 000 square km) is considerably less than that of 

 the Indian (74,917,000 square km), Atlantic (93,363,000 square km) and Pacific (179,679,000 

 square km) Oceans. 



The Arctic Ocean has certain singular features; one of the most remarkable of these is the 

 unusual development of the continental shoal, especially off its Eurasian shore. 



While the continental shoal (depths 0-200 m) comprises only 8 per cent of the area of the 

 World Ocean, it comprises more than 37 per cent of the area of the Arctic Ocean. At the meridian 

 of the White Sea Neck it embraces 15° of latitude; at the meridian of Bering Strait, if we count the 

 continental shoal of the Chuckchee and Bering Seas, it extends for 18° of latitude, and is exception- 

 ally shallow. 



The Arctic Ocean also differs from other oceans with respect to its maximum depth. While 

 the greatest depth of the Atlantic Ocean is 8, 525 m, the Indian 7,450 m and the Pacific 10, 830 m, 

 the greatest depth of the Arctic Ocean probably does not exceed 5, 180 m. *** 



♦Probably the southwest cape of Zemlya Georga, Franz Joseph Land - Translator. 



**Evidently the area between the Beaufort and Lincoln Seas, in Russian "Severe- Amerikanskoye 

 Prolivnoye More, " i.e. North American Channel (strait) Sea - Translator. 



***The Wilkins Expedition found a depth of 5, 440 m north of Wrangel Island, using an echo 

 sounder. After the measurements made by Libin and Cherevichnyi in 1941, this depth seems 

 doubtful. It is more accurate to consider 5, 180 m, a depth measured by the Sed o u during its drift 

 in 1937 to 40, to be the greatest Arctic Ocean depth. 



