252 



PETTEliSSON, ON WATEli AND lOE. 



from tho coast of WrangeFs Land to 77° 30' Lat. 155° Long. 

 E. G. 1 



But the fäte of the wrecked expeditions was scarcely 

 needed to convince us of the existence of an ice-current from 

 east to west in the northern part of the Siberian sea, since 

 the hiige accumulation of driftwood, heaped iip on every shoal 

 coast of Spitzbergen, must iinmistakably be deposits arriving 

 from the raouths of the Siberian rivers. - Spitzbergen acts 

 like a breakwater on this ice-current, forcing it to round the 

 northern points of the North-East-Land or pass through Hin- 

 loopen Strait. We know, that the northern coast of Spitzbergen 

 is swept by the drift ice, which occasionally leaves a narrow 

 channel of navigable water, more or less open, extending from 

 the Amsterdam Island archipelago toward the north-east. In 

 the Ergänzungsheft N:o 16 zu den Geograph. Mittheil., where 

 Petermann has inserted a map of Spitzbergen, taken from 

 the measurements by Nordenskiöld and Dunér of the- 

 Swedish expeditions 1860—1864, the places, where driftwood 

 is principally found, are marked with green tints. A glance^ 

 at this map shows us, not only the northern coast of the 

 North-East-Land from Döve bay to Hinloopen Strait and 

 likewise the Seven Islands, Moffen, Low Island, but also the 

 Southern coast of Stans' Foreland, the Thousand Islands and 

 the eastern side of the shoal coast of South-cape, where a 

 branch of the ice-current seeks its way westward, garnished 

 with driftwood. 



But also that part of the ice, which really melts in the 

 arctic sea, leaves the water in a condition little favorable, for 

 imuiediate diffusion. The density of the ice-water at the 

 melting-point being very inferior to that of the salt water 

 beneath the ice, the melting process will tend to produce a 

 thin superfieial stratum of fresh water, which. the remains of 

 the floating ice will protect from external disturbance by 

 keeping out the force of the waves. Some examples will tend 

 to confirm this. 



Early in summer the south-eastern part of the Barentz 

 Sea with the entrances to the Kära Sea, the Kära Strait and 

 the Yugor Schar are barricaded by a strong barrier of pack- 

 ice, which in August melts away very rapidly. In this part 



schaftlichen Beobachtungen während der 2ten Oesterr.-Ung. Nordpolar-Ex- 

 pedition unter Weyprecht u. Payer 1872 — 74. Wien Jan. 18, 1878. 



^ Scientifie results of the » Jeannette» expedition. Nature, Sept. 14, 1882. 



■^ 8ee Agardh, Öfvers. K. V. A. Förhandl. 1869. 



