764 T. C. CHAMBERLIN 
relief. Including the data of the summer months, the prepon- 
derant direction is shown by the above tables to be easterly. 
Omitting them, it becomes northeasterly. But in either case 
the dominant winds come from the north Atlantic, and justify 
the statement that Greenland is on the leeward side of the high 
north Atlantic and the adjacent part of the Arctic Ocean. 
In the eastern part of the Arctic Archipelago as far south as 
Hudson Straits the winds are very variable, a fact quite con- 
sistent with their physiographic surroundings, and with their 
location well toward the interior of the north Atlantic depression.* 
The paths of the moving cyclones— Besides the general fact 
that the prevailing atmospheric currents from the Mackenzie to 
the Lena form a great eddy, with maximum conditions of 
glaciation on the north and west of its chief center near the apex 
of Greenland, it is to be noted that the paths of the moving 
” 
“lows” are greatly influenced by the permanent depression at . 
the center of the eddy. This is graphically shown for the north 
Atlantic portion of the region by Hann’s map No. 367 herewith 
reproduced (sketch map 3), in which it is shown that nearly all 
) 
the moving ‘‘lows’’ curve to the northward in courses more or 
less rudely spiral or concentric to the permanent ‘low.’ The 
larger number of paths run spirally in toward the permanent center, 
which suggests the conception that the great fixed cyclone is in 
some sense an aggregate of numerous small in-running migrant 
cyclones. If data were sufficient to permit the following of 
the complete courses of all the migrant cyclones from their origin 
to their extinction, a dominant system of great interest would 
probably be shown. As already remarked, a considerable num- 
ber of these migrant cyclones originate in the American north- 
west. These show a notable habit of sweeping southeasterly 
‘IT am greatly indebted to the Hon. Willis L. Moore, Chief of the United States 
Weather Bureau, and to Professor R. F. Stupart, of the Canadian Meteorological 
Service for transcripts of data relative to various high latitude stations not otherwise 
at my command. 
-? Berghaus’ Physical Atlas. 
3The North American continent is the region where cyclones form in large 
numbers, and Europe and Asia the region where they dissipate.” F.H. BIGELOW: 
Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. VIII, December 1, 1889, p. 443. 
