680 WIXDSOFTHEGLOBE. 



being nearer to Iceland, where pressure is low, we might infer that the contrary 

 should be the case, if all local influences were eliminated. Nearly all the storms 

 near Sabine Island come from the N., and the mean force of this wind is very 

 much greater than that of any other wind/ 



The constancy of the polar current in Northern Greenland is indirectly proved 

 by the small precipitation of rain and snow. The quantity of snow falling at 

 Polaris Bay and Lifeboat Cove was scarcely measurable, according to Dr. Bessels. 

 He thinks the glaciers of Northern Greenland are the remnant of a former age, 

 when the climate was different. The snow and ice that melt in every summer are 

 not now replaced by new snow, so that the glaciers must be decreasing. 



The German expedition did not encounter a heavy snow-fall, and the parties who, 

 in sledges, explored the interior, were quite astoniished at the constant brilliancy of 

 the sunshine of the Greenland sunnner. 



In Arctic countries the sea is warmer than the land in the mean of the year; 

 during a very short time only, in summer, are the conditions reversed. The pressure 

 is generally higher on land, so that we must expect to see a prevalence of land- 

 winds in the mean of the year. In looking at the map of the polar regions (Plate 

 2) an easterly mean direction is seen to prevail in all stations in Greenland, that 

 have the open sea to the westward ; and a westerly in the stations of the Arctic 

 Archipelago, which have the sea to the eastward. 



By sea, is meant here the more or less open waters of Baffin's Bay and Davis 

 Strait, and not the more ice-bound straits and inlets of the archipelago. Ikog- 

 mut and St. Michael in northern Alaska have easterly winds, directed towards 

 Behring Strait. In Ustyansk, in the extreme north of eastern Siberia, the mean 

 yearly direction is nearly due south — as we might infer from the fact that the Arctic 

 Ocean lies to the north of this place. Hammcrfest, Vardo, and Bossekop, in ex- 

 treme northern Norway, have also prevailing southerly winds for a similar reason. 



The extreme prevalence of land-bound (Mediterranean) seas, north of the North 

 American continent, greatly affect the character of the region considered in a 

 climatic point of view. As land-bound seas in these latitudes will be also ice-bound, 

 the air over them would cool as over a continent, so that places situated on the shores 

 of such seas will have a cold continental climate in winter, spring, and autumn. 

 This cold will not, however, be followed by a comparatively warm summer, as is 

 the case on polar continents far from the influence of the sea. The melting ice 

 over the sea absorbs the heat of the sun's rays. Thus we have a continental cli- 

 mate during three-quarters of the year, and an oceanic during the remaining sum- 

 mer quarter. This is the case in the Arctic Archipelago. It has one of the 

 coldest climates of the world, the winter being even colder than in northern Green- 

 land, and only a little warmer than in lakutsk in eastern Siberia, and the summer 

 also extremely cold. 



The percentage of winds is as follows : — 



' See "Die Zweite Deutsche Nordpolarfalirt," Leipzig, 1874. 



