DEPTH OF PERMANENTLT FROZEN SOIL IN THE POLAR REaiONS. 271 



Report of the Committee, consisting of General J. T. Walker, 

 Greneral Sir J. H. Lefroy, Professor Sir W. Thomson, Mr. Alex. 

 BucHAN, INIr. J. Y. Buchanan, Mr. John Murray, Dr. J. Eae, Mr. 

 H. W. Bates (Secretary), Captain W. J. Dawson, Dr. A. Selwyn, 

 and Mr. C. Carpmael, appointed to organise a Systematic In- 

 vestigation of the Depth of the Periinanently Frozen Soil in the 

 Polar Regions, its Geographical Limits and Relation to the 

 present Pole of greatest cold. 



The inquiry referred to the Committee necessitated reference to residents 

 in many distant regions, and time must elapse before any large harvest 

 of observations can be hoped for ; nevertheless, the Committee are in a 

 position to quote several valuable communications, especially one from Mr. 

 Andrew Flett, adding materially to what was previously known on the sub- 

 ject of the extension of permanently frozen soil, or ground ice, in America. 

 It will be convenient to arrange the data now available in their order 

 of latitude. 



1. Lat. 71° 18' ISr., long. 156° 24' W.— At the wintering station of the 

 United States expedition of 1881-2, under Lieutenant P. H. Ray, United 

 States America, that officer found the temperature of the soil 12° F. at 

 28 feet from the surface, and the same at 38 feet. 



2. Lat. 68° N., long. 135° W.— At Fort Macpherson, on Peel River, 

 Mr. Andrew Flett, who passed 12 years there, reports : — ' The greatest 

 depth of thawed-out earth I came across round that post was 3^ feet, 

 October 10, 1865. The greatest depth of frozen ground was 52 feet 3 

 inches, September 27, 1867, near the mouth of Peel River. The bank 

 had fallen in ; at the bottom the perpendicular cliff, which I tried with a 

 boat pole, was frozen as hard as a rock. A black sandy soil. The 

 surface w^as not above two feet thawed out. The cliff was measured 

 with the tracking line.' This account leaves it doubtful whether the 

 frost may not have entered the soil from the face of the cliff. On the 

 other hand it is evident that it extended to a greater depth from the 

 surface than was measured. 



3. Lat. 67° N., long. 142° W. on the Youcon.— The same gentleman 

 ■writes: — 'I spent 12 years on the Pelly or Youcon River, on the west 

 side of the Rocky Mountains. Round old Fort Youcon ground ice is 

 found at 6 feet ; this I have seen in the river banks in September where 

 they had caved in ; but no particular notice has been taken as far as I 

 know by anyone, unless it be Chief Factor Robert Campbell, now residing 

 in Merchiston, Strathclair, P.O., Manitoba.' 



4. Lat. 65° N., long. 120° W.— On the Mackenzie River, about ten 

 miles above the mouth of Bear River. — The same gentleman writes : — 

 ' I have seen many landslips on the Mackenzie, which more frequently 

 takes place in rainy weather ; July, August, and sometimes September ; 

 but I never examined them particularly excepting one, which we came 

 near being buried by in camp. This was about August 15, 1876. By a 

 pole, I found the bottom of the slide frozen hard, a grey clay and gravel 

 mixed, from where the earth broke off was not over 6 feet. The surface soil 

 sandy. Some way back from the river bank the country is muskeg more 

 or less, and by removing the moss by hand we came to hard frozen ground 

 in August.' The sentence printed in italic is somewhat ambiguous. It 



