Land in Vicinity of North Pole 



2 59 



Furthermore, the undiminished range 

 of tide at Bennett Island perhaps indi- 

 cates that the Nansen channel does not 

 greatly broaden at the Pole. 



Between this supposed land and the 

 islands recently discovered by Sverclrup 

 may be other islands, forming a contin- 

 uation of the Arctic Archipelago and 

 separated from one another by channels 

 of moderate depths, or perhaps this land 

 approaches the Garfield Coast and Grant 

 Land. At any rate, the range of tide 

 diminishes from 2 feet at Cape Sheridan 

 to \ Y /z feet at Northumberland Sound, 

 Penny Strait; and Lock wood and Brain- 

 ard judged the tide to be small at Greely 

 Fiord. These indicate that the access 

 of the tide from the north is not alto- 

 gether unrestricted ; in fact, part of the 

 tide at Northumberland Sound comes 

 from the east through Belcher Channel. 



We come now to another question. 

 A few tides have been observed along 

 the northern coast of Alaska by the ex- 

 plorer, Thomas Simpson.* They show 

 that the tide on the outer coast occurs 

 nearly simultaneously from Point Bar- 

 row to Camden Bay and Simpson Cove. 

 But as the international boundary line is 

 approached a great change takes place: 

 the tide at Demarcation Point, not ioo 

 miles farther east, is about seven hours 

 later in its time of occurrence. Obser- 

 vations are not sufficient for showing 

 how this change takes place, but it cer- 

 tainly occurs. The set of the flood 

 along the outer coast is given as easterly 

 for all points where it has been observed 

 from Point Barrow to and beyond Cape 

 Bathurst ; but such observations are 

 very meager, probably on account of 

 the smallness of the tide. This would 

 seem to preclude the possibility of the 

 principal part of the tide coming from 

 the north or east ; hence the probable 

 approach of the polar land to Banks 

 Land, or to Prince Patrick Island, or to 

 Grant Land. 



* Simpson : Discoveries on the North Coast 

 of America, i836-'39, pp. 115, 117, 121-123, 

 132, 138, 161-162, 167, 178, 183. 



Suppose an island about 100 miles in 

 diameter to be separated from the coast 

 by a shallow strait about 75 miles wide 

 in its narrowest part. By assuming 

 that deeper water exists to the west of 

 the strait and island, and that the tide 

 comes from the west, it seems possible 

 to account for the sudden change in the 

 time of tide ; for, the main wave, going 

 north of the island, would control the 

 time of the tide to east of it and in Mac- 

 kenzie Bay, and deep water west of the 

 island and shallow strait would cause 

 the tide at Camden Bay and westward 

 to occur remarkably early, just as if 

 this coast were at the head of a deep, 

 suddenly-terminated canal extending 

 northwesterly. 



Immediately eastward from this sup- 

 posed strait both Simpson* and Mc- 

 Clure f found that the waves became 

 more like those upon a sea of some mag- 

 nitude, and the latter, sailing a little 

 north of east, found the depths to rap- 

 idly increase from 9 to 32 fathoms, and 

 soon to 195 with no bottom. 



Now, the question is, Why this more 

 sea-like appearance, unless some huge 

 obstruction lies immediately to the 

 west ? It may, of course, be partly due 

 to the open water caused by the influx 

 of the Mackenzie. 



It will be of interest to note that sev- 

 eral Arctic authorities have at various 

 times suspected or inferred the exist- 

 ence of land near the Pole. 



Richardson says : ' ' The Eskimos of 

 Point Barrow have a tradition, reported 

 by Mr Simpson, surgeon of the Plover 

 [in 1832] , of some of their tribe having 

 been carried to the north on ice broken 

 up in a southerly gale, and arriving, 

 after many nights, at a hilly country 

 inhabited by people like themselves, 

 speaking the Eskimo language, by 

 whom they were well received. After 

 a long stay, one spring in which the ice 

 remained without movement the}^ re- 

 turned without mishap to their own 



* Simpson : L. c. , p. 176. 

 fMcClure : L. c, p. 82. 



