634 Original Articles. [Oct., 



depth is readied in which is found the invariable marking of 39° 

 Fahrenheit ; and this water being brought to the surface, the air 

 around is warmed and saturated with moisture, and finally we have 

 the phenomenon of rain in the midst of an arctic winter. We have 

 several records of such changes of temperature as are here referred to 

 from the coast both of America and Asia, on opposite sides of the 

 pole. Baron Wrangel speaks of a wind on the Siberian coast, from 

 the S.E. by E. which causes a rise in the temperature from — 24° to 

 + 25° or even -J- 32°. The Danish colonists of Upernavik, in North 

 Greenland, say that frequently in the depth of winter they experience 

 a warm south-easterly wind, which brings with it abundance of rain, 

 a most unwelcome change of weather when they are only prepared to 

 fence out cold. In the Private Journal of an officer of the 'Fox,' 

 given in the first number of the ' Cornhill Magazine,' it is mentioned 

 that late in December, when beset in the ice of Baffin's Bay, the 

 daring voyagers experienced a warm wind from the N.N.W., and again 

 Dr. Kane was met in January by what was at first a snow-storm, 

 accompanied by much south-east wind, but which finally resulted in a 

 thaw, indicating a rise in the thermometer of more than 70° in two 

 days. 



We may then sum up the evidence in favour of open sea north- 

 wards, for some considerable distance from Spitzbergen, into (1) the 

 direct evidence of early navigators, principally Dutch, confirmed by 

 the far more authentic evidence of Sir Edward Parry, as far as ho 

 went (82° 40' N. lat.) ; (2), the absence of all evidence of land to the 

 north of Spitzbergen, when such evidence might have been expected 

 from icebergs or from the ordinary indications of land at some distance 

 from the shore ; (3), the confirmatory testimony of the power of ocean 

 current, of open sea swell, and of storms of wind sometimes bearing 

 heated atmosphere with them, stirring up the lower water of the 

 ocean, which is known to be at all times at a fixed degree abovo 

 freezing point. This evidence tends to prove that to the north of 

 Spitzbergen no land interrupts the flow of the ocean, and that when 

 the ocean is not divided into small channels, it is seldom entirely 

 frozen over all the year round. 



It is to be hoped, however, that an expedition northwards will ere 

 long be fitted out, and that these speculations will then be set at rest, 

 and that you will be able to place before your readers some more 

 definite evidence ,#s to the nature of both terrestrial and climatic 

 condition of the country about the North Pole. In the meanwhile, 

 should such an expedition as I have alluded to receive the sanction of 

 Government, it must be remembered that whilst the route by way of 

 Spitzbergen* holds out the inducement of a probability of open water 

 for a great distance towards the hoped-for goal, we can arrive at no 

 certainty until the expedition has taken place, and the explorers, which- 

 ever route may be chosen, must be in utrumque parati. 



* Dr. Peterniann, of Berlin, is so fully persuaded of greater feasibility of the 

 route by way of Spitzbergen, that he has offered a premium of from 150/. to 300/, 

 to any German mariner who will explore the ocean currents between that island 

 and Nova Zembla, preparatory to an exj>editiori to the pole from thafe* quarter. 



