Land in Vicinity of North Pole 



2 SS 



experienced in the past two years worse 

 than anything that has been known in 

 sixty years ; but probably the Philip- 

 pines has experienced its worst luck 

 in the two years' visitation of locusts, 

 w r hich have destroyed everything in 

 their path. Yet, in spite of this, as I 

 say, the revenues have increased, and 

 last year, for the first time since Amer- 

 ican occupation, a balance of trade in 

 favor of the islands to the extent of 



$150,000 is shown. The following table 

 shows the increase of the total imports 

 and exports each year : 



1899 |25,479.9 2 2 



19 00 40,352, 504 



I9°i 53,494,354 



1902 56,069,521 



1903 66,093,662 



I am officially informed that no seri- 

 ous inequalities have been found in the 

 tariff. 



To be concluded in July number 



SOME INDICATIONS OF LAND IN THE 

 VICINITY OF THE NORTH POLE* 



By R. A. Harris, 

 U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 



IT is a well established fact that there 

 are two important surface currents 

 (or drifts) in the Arctic Ocean. 

 One of these flows easterly along the 

 northern coast of Alaska, through the 

 Arctic Archipelago, finally reaching 

 the Atlantic Ocean through Davis and 

 Hudson Straits. The other starts in the 

 neighborhood of Herald Island, north- 

 westerly from Bering Strait, and thence 

 flows northwesterly, passing to the 

 north of New Siberia ; thence to the 

 north of Franz Josef Land and the Spitz- 

 bergen Islands, and through Denmark 

 Strait to and around Cape Farewell. 

 Therefore these currents are near to- 

 gether when north of Bering Strait and 

 again when in the vicinity of southern 

 Greenland. 



Some evidence of the American cur- 

 rent may be cited. The ships Advance 

 and Rescue, of the first Grinnell Expe- 

 dition, were for a while carried north- 



erly in Wellington Channel by the drift- 

 ing ice ; but when near the northern 

 end of the channel the current reversed, 

 and thereafter they were carried south- 

 erly and easterly through Barrow Strait, 

 Lancaster Sound, Baffin Bay, Davis 

 Strait to latitude 65 ° 30' N. , where they 

 got themselves free from the ice. The 

 amount of southeasterly drifting meas- 

 ures about 1,000 nautical miles, and 

 required a little more than six months, 

 extending from November, 1850, to 

 June, 1 85 1. This gives an average rate 

 of 5 miles per day. 



In May, 1854, the British ships In- 

 trepid and Resolute were abandoned off 

 the western end of Barrow Strait. The 

 Resolute was picked up off Cape Mercy, 

 in the south end of Davis Strait, in Sep- 

 tember, 1855. During these 16 months 

 1,100 miles were covered, making an 

 average rate of 2^ miles per day. 



Strong easterly currents are encoun- 



* Read before the Philosophical Society of Washington, April 9, 1904. Communicated to 

 the National Geographic Magazine by O. H. Tittmann, Superintendent of the U. S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey. 



