THE WELLMAN POLAR EXPEDITION 497 



One flows southward toward the equator, while the other im- 

 pinges against the coast of Norway, keeping ice-free all winter 

 the fiords and harbors of that picturesque country even farther 

 north than the latitude of Point Barrow, in Alaska, and then 

 flowing on into the Barents sea against the western coast of 

 Nova Zembla and, thus turned northwestward, continuing its 

 course in a westerly direction along the southern coasts of 

 Franz Josef Land. There our investigations and observations 

 enabled us carefully to note the mingling of the two currents. 

 Just as the Gulf Stream is the product of the piling up of 

 masses of water within the Gulf of Mexico by the trade winds 

 of the southern hemisphere, so the Arctic current which brings 

 the icy waters down into the Atlantic from the polar sea is the 

 product of the northern trade winds. We were thus at a most 

 advantageous point for study of this vast circulatory system of 

 the sea. We were at the meeting of the waters from the two 

 Poles of our earth. 



Of great importance to explorers is this constant movement 

 of the liquid masses which impinge upon Arctic lands. It frees 

 the coast of Franz Josef Land of ice through the summer months, 

 making navigation all along its shores comparatively easy at that 

 season, even though there may be a thick belt of almost impen- 

 etrable pack-ice farther to the south. It brings to Arctic shores, 

 too, from the headwaters of Siberian rivers, masses of driftwood 

 for fuel and building purposes. It seemed to us a remarkable 

 beneficence of nature that we should find timber from the inte- 

 rior of Asia to put into our little hut and to burn with blubber 

 for our fires a thousand miles above the tree limit and within 

 six hundred miles of the North Pole itself. 



While wintering at Cape Tegetthoff we burned considerable 

 quantities of this driftwood, and at times we thought it not such 

 a bad country, after all. Perfectly fresh water came pouring down 

 from the glaciers in the summer months and formed limpid pools 

 at our very doors. Building materials we sawed out of frozen 

 snowdrifts, blocks as true and almost as firm as marble. Bears 

 had a comfortable habit of walking into our front yard to be 

 shot, and right nice steaks and stews we contrived to make of 

 them. The surf threw firewood upon the beach right in front 

 of our dwelling, and never at any time did we have need of the 

 iceman. 



The sunless winter was long, but not tedious. Best of all, 

 good fellowship aluide with us. It is an Arctic axiom that ex- 



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