INT'R OD UCTION 2 5 



bends eastward towards Novaya Zemlya, and of which a 

 great portion unquestionably continues its course alono- 

 the north coast of this island into the Siberian Arctic 

 Sea. That a current coming from the south takes 

 this direction — at all events, in some measure — appears 

 probable from the well-known fact that in the northern 

 hemisphere the rotation of the earth tends to compel a 

 northward -flowing current, whether of water or of air, 

 to assume an easterly course. The earth's rotation may 

 also cause a southward - flowing stream, like the polar 

 current, to direct its course westward to the east coast 

 of Greenland. 



" But even if these currents flowing in the polar basin 

 did not exist, I am still of opinion that in some other 

 way a body of water must collect in it, sufficient to form 

 a polar current. In the first place, there are the North 

 European, the Siberian, and North American rivers 

 debouching into the Arctic Sea, to supply this water. 

 The fluvial basin of these rivers is very considerable, 

 comprising a large portion of Northern Europe, almost 

 the whole of Northern Asia or Siberia down to the Altai 

 Mountains and Lake Baikal, together with the principal 

 part of Alaska and British North America. All these 

 added together form no unimportant portion of the 

 earth, and the rainfall of these countries is enormous. 

 It is not conceivable that the Arctic Sea of itself could 

 contribute anything of importance to this rainfall ; for, in 

 the first place, it is for the most part covered with drift- 



