CLIMATE OF THE HIGH NORTH OF AMERICA. 187 



season sometimes passes without having sufficed to 

 thaw the covering of ice, nine or ten feet thick, with 

 which in winter all the water basins are covered. 

 The temperature of the air cannot rise here very 

 far above the freezing point, and the warmer air, 

 which the south wind may bring, is soon cooled 

 down to the temperature of the sea. According 

 to Scoresby, the sea freezes in clear, still nights, 

 even when the temperature falls only to a very 

 little below 0° C. (32° F.) Ross found the 

 temperature of the sea water under the ice, even 

 in the middle of winter, no lower than 2°*8 C. 

 (36°*96 F.) At the beginning of winter the 

 neighbourhood of the sea, as well as the heat set 

 free by the formation of ice, must certainly some- 

 what retard the progress of the cold ; but this 

 influence ceases as soon as a solid crust of ice is 

 formed, which is the case on the seas bounding 

 the extreme north of America, at the end of 

 September, or at the beginning of October. All 

 the conditions of a continental winter now come 

 into play, and must necessarily bring about the 

 results, which always follow them. This explains 

 why the islands and peninsulas on the north-east 

 of America, which are, next to Nova Zembla 

 and Spitsbergen, the most inhospitable in the 

 northern hemisphere, can produce nothing but 

 some scanty grass and a few lichens. Parry 

 found the mean summer temperature on Winter 



