TBANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 831 



village of Kureika, it is about 3 miles wide, and, following the mighty stream 

 for about another 800 miles down to the Brekoffsky Islands, it is nearly 

 6 miles wide. The depth of the channel varies from 50 to 100 feet above the 

 winter level of the ice. This ice is about 3 feet thick, covered with 6 feet of snow, 

 which becomes flooded shortly before the break up and converted into about 3 feet 

 of ice, white as marble, which lies above the winter blue ice. When the final crash 

 comes this field of thick ice is shatttered like glass. The irresistible force of 

 the flood behind tears it up at an average rate of 4 miles an hour, or about a 

 hundred miles a day, and drives it down to the sea in the form of ice floes and pack 

 ice. Occasionally a narrow part of the channel or a sharp bend of the river 

 causes a temporary check ; but the pressure from behind is irresistible, the pack ice 

 is piled into heaps, and the ice floes are doubled up into little mountains, which 

 rapidly freeze together into icebergs, which float oft' the banks as the water rises. 

 Meanwhile, other ice floes come up behind: some are driren into the forests, where 

 the largest trees are mown down by them like grass, whilst others press on until 

 the barrier gives way, and the waters, suddenly let loose, rush along at double speed, 

 carrying the icebergs with them with irresistible force, the pent-up dam which 

 has accumulated in the rear often covering hundreds of square miles. In very 

 little more than a week the ice on the 800 miles from Yeniseisk to the 

 Kureika is completely broken up, and in litrle more than another week the 

 second 800 miles from the Kureika to the Brekofisky Islands is in the same 

 condition. 



During the Glacial epoch the annual fight between winter and the sun nearly 

 always ended in the victory of the former. Even now the fight is a very desperate 

 one within the Polar Circle, and is subject; to much geographical variation. The sun 

 alone has little or no chance. The armies of winter are clad in white armour 

 absolutely proof against the sun's darts, which glance harmlessly on six feet of 

 snow. In these high latitudes the angle of incidence is very small, even at mid- 

 day in midsummer. The sun's rays are reflected back into the dry air with as 

 little eff"ect as a shell which strikes obliquely against an armour plate. But the 

 sun does not fight his battle alone. He has allies which, Hke the arrival of the 

 Prussians on the field of Waterloo, finally determine the issue of the battle in his 

 favour. The tide of victory turns earliest in Norway, although the Scandinavian 

 Fjeld formsa magnificent fortress in which the forces of winter entrench themselves 

 in vain. This fortress looks as impregnable as that on the opposite coast, and 

 would doubtless prove so were it not for the fact that in this part of the Polar 

 Basin the sun has a most potent ally in the Gulf Stream, wliich soon routs the 

 armies of winter and compels the fortress to capitulate. 



The suddenness of the arrival of summer in Siberia is probably largely due to 

 the geographical features of the country. In consequence of the vastness of the 

 area which is drained by the great rivers, and the immense volume of water which 

 they have to carry to the sea, the break up of the ice in their lower valleys precedes, 

 instead of being caused by, the melting of the snow towards the lim'it of forest 

 growth. The ice on the affluents either breaks up after that ou the main river, or 

 is broken up by irresistible currents from it which flow up stream ; an anomaly for 

 which the pioneer voyager is seldom prepared ; and when the captain has escaped 

 the danger of battling against an attack of pack ice and ice floes from a quarter 

 whence it was entirely unexpected, he may be suddenly called upon to face a 

 second army of more formidable ice floes and pack ice from the great river itself, 

 and if his ship survive the second attack a third danger awaits him in the alternate 

 rise and fall of the tributary as each successive barrier where the ice gets jammed 

 in its march down the main stream Ijelow the junction of the river accumulates 

 until the pressure from behind becomes irresistible, when it suddenly gives wav. 

 This alternate advance and retreat of the beaten armies of winter continued for 

 about ten days during the battle between summer and winter of which I was a 

 witness in the valley of the Yenisei. On one occasion I calculated that at least 

 50,000 acres of pack ice and ice floes had been marched up the Kureika. The 

 marvel is what became of it. To all appearance half of it never came back. " Some 

 of it no doubt melted away during the ten days' marches and counter-marches 



