46 FARTHEST NORTH 



mous weight of snow accumulated on its surface." This 

 outflow takes place on all sides, he thinks, from the polar 

 basin, but should be most pronounced in the tract 

 between the western end of the Parry Islands and 

 Spitzbergen ; and with this outflow all previous expedi- 

 tions have had to contend. He does not appear to make 

 any exception as to the Tcgcthoff or Jcannette, and can 

 find no reason " for believing that a current sets north 

 over the Pole from the New Siberian Islands, which 

 Dr. Nansen hopes for and believes in. ... It is my 

 opinion that when really within what may be called the 

 inner circle, say about ']'^' of latitude, there is little 

 current of any kind that would influence a ship in the 

 close ice that must be expected ; it is when we get 

 outside this circle — round the corners, as it were — into 

 the straight wide channels, where the ice is loose, that 

 we are really affected by its influence, and here the ice 

 gets naturally thinner, and more decayed in autumn, and 

 less dangerous to a ship. Within the inner circle prob- 

 ably not much of the ice escapes ; it becomes older and 

 heavier every year, and in all probability completely 

 blocks the navigation of ships entirely. This is the 

 kind of ice which was brought to Nares's winter quarters 

 at the head of Smith Sound in about 82° 30' north ; 

 and this is the ice which Markham struggled against in 

 his sledge journe}', and against which no human powder 

 could prevail." 



He attached " no real importance " to the Jeannette 



