Miscellaneous Intelligence. 403 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. The North Polar Basin. — In an address delivered before 

 the Geographical Section of the British Association, Mr. Henry 

 Seebohm gives an interesting . account of the sudden coming of 

 summer in high latitudes from which the following paragraphs 

 are quoted : 



"The sudden arrival of summer on the Arctic Circle appears to 

 occur nearly at the same date in all the great river basins, but 

 the number of recorded observations is so small that the slight 

 variation may possibly be seasonal and not local. The ice on the 

 Mackenzie River is stated by one authority to have broken up on 

 May 13th in latitude 62°, and by another on May 9th in latitude 

 17°. If the Mackenzie breaks np as fast as the Yenisei — that is 

 to say, at the rate of a degree a day — an assumption which is 

 supported by what little evidence can be found — -then the dif- 

 ference between these two seasons would be nine days. My own 

 experience has been that the ice of the Pechora breaks up ten 

 days before that of the Yenisei, but as I have only witnessed one 

 such event in each valley too much importance must not be at- 

 tached to the dates. According to the Challenger tables of iso- 

 thermal lines, the mean temperatures of January and July on 

 the Arctic Circle in the valleys of the Mackenzie and the Yenisei 

 scarcely differ, the summer temperature in each case being about 

 55° F., and that of winter —25° F., a difference of 80° F. 



On the American side of the Polar Basin summer comes almost 

 as suddenly as it does on the Asiatic side, but the change appears 

 to be less of the nature of a catastrophe. The geographical 

 causes which produce this result are the smaller area of the river 

 basins and the less amount of rainfall. There is only one large 

 river which empties itself into the Arctic Ocean on the American 

 side, the Mackenzie, with which may be associated the Saskatche- 

 wan, which discharges into Hudson Bay far away to the south. 

 The basin of the Mackenzie is estimated at 590,000 square miles, 

 whilst that of the Yenisei is supposed to be exactly twice that 

 area. The comparative dimensions of the two summer floods are 

 still more diminished by the difference in the quantity of snow. . . . 



The arrival of summer in the Arctic regions happens so late 

 that the inexperienced traveler may be excused for sometimes 

 doubting whether it really is going to come at all. When con- 

 tinuous night has become continuous day without any perceptible 

 approach to spring an alpine traveler naturally asks whether he 

 has not reached the limit of perpetual snow. It is true that here 

 and there a few bare patches are to be found on the steepest 

 slopes, where most of the snow has been blown away by the 

 wind, especially if these slopes face the south, where even an 

 Arctic sun has more potency than it has elsewhere. It is also 

 true that small flocks of little birds — at first snow-buntings and 

 mealy redpoles, and later shore larks and Lapland buntings — may 



