receding since approximately the beginning of the present century. In particular the Jakobshavn 

 glacier receded about 20 m during the period 1880 to 1902. As has already been mentioned, the 

 glaciers of these two bays produce the main mass of the Greenland icebergs. Receding of glaciers 

 during recent years has likewise been observed on Spitzbergen, Franz Joseph Land, and Novaya 

 Zemlya. 



On Franz Joseph Land during recent years several islands have appeared as if broken in two. It 

 turned out that they had been connected up to that time by ice bridges. 



During voyages on the Perseus in 1934 and the Sadko in 1935, I carefully compared the de- 

 scriptions of glaciers on Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen in some English sailing directions of 1911 with 

 what I observed and everywhere I noted a great decrease in size of glaciers. 



Ahlman explored the glaciers of Spitzbergen in 1934 and found that these glaciers are now 

 melting faster than they grow on account of fall of snow. Ahlman terms the rapid receding of the 

 Spitzbergen glaciers "catastrophic." 



Sumgin informed me that the southern boundary of permafrost in Siberia is everywhere re- 

 ceding northward. In 1837 this boundary, for example, ran somewhat south of the town of Mezen 

 and was found at a depth of 2 m. In 1933 the Academy of Sciences Expedition found this boundary at 

 the village of Semzha 40 km further north. 



The washing away of the Lyakhoskiye Ostrova and the disappearance of Vasilevski Ostrov in 

 the Laptev Sea belong to the same type of phenomena. 



2. Rise of air temperature. Since 1920 the average temperature of the winter months has 

 steadily increased on the coasts of Baffin Bay, the Greenland Sea ( Jacobshavn) , Spitzbergen, Bear 

 Island, Barents and Kara Seas. Even in the winter of 1928-29, when there was bitter cold in 

 Europe, the winter temperature on Spitzbergen and Bear Island was only slightly under normal. 

 Vize points out that at Vardo (northeast Norway) the average annual air temperature starting with 

 1918 is higher than the average for the century. The year 1926 represents an exception with tem- 

 perature lower than normal by 0.2°. 



Starting with 1930, in the whole arctic sector from Greenland to Cape Chelyuskin there has 

 not been a single anomaly of average annual and monthly winter temperatures, while the positive 

 anomalies have been very high. Thus, for example, in the winter of 1934-35 the positive anom- 

 alies of average monthly temperature in the region from Dickson Island to Cape Chelyuskin were 

 from 4° to 10°. In November 1935 the positive anomaly on Spitzbergen amounted to 10°. * 



Vize points out that if one compares the average air temperatures on the Fran and Sedov 

 when the position of these vessels more or less coincided in respect to coordinates (average lati- 

 tude of the Fran was 81°59' north longitude, 113°26' east; Sedov, 82° 48' north, 121°30' east) and 

 in respect to season (November 1893 to August 1895 for the Fram ; November 1937 to August 1939 

 for the Sedov), it turns out that the average annual air temperature on the Sedov was 4. 1° higher 

 than on the Fran . In the six months from September through February this difference even 

 amounted to 7. 5°. 



*The deviation of average air temperatures from the 50 year averages exceeded +4° in 

 January to March, 1921 to 1931. 



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