546 General Notes. [July, 
goes between Iceland and the Faroe islands, approaches North 
cape, rounds Novaya Zemlya and Cape Chelyuskin, nearing the 
coast of Asia at the bay of Nijne Kolimsk, and lastly, returns to 
Point Barrow. 
NAVIGATION OF THE SIBERIAN ARCTIC OcEAN.—The New York 
Herald publishes a translation of a paper prepared by Prof. Nor- 
denskidld, on board the Vega, in the spring of 1879, “ On the 
Possibility of Navigation for Commercial Purposes in the Sibe- 
rian Arctic Ocean.” e discusses at some length the routes and 
best seasons for navigation between the Obi-Yenisei and the At- 
lantic. As regards the feasibility of the passage westward through 
Behring strait, he remarks that owing to the rotation of the 
earth, that portion of the great warm current from the south 
called the Korosivo, which is deflected into- Behring strait, 
would tend towards the east and not towards the north-west 
along the coast of Asia, as indicated by many charts. And that 
there was no such current on that coast, was proved by the inves- 
tigations made by his expedition. “ The currents in the sea or in 
the large gulf formed by Wrangell’s Land, the north-east shore 
of Asia and the north-west shore of America, resemble rather the 
currents of Greenland and of the Sea of Kara. In all those waters 
a warm current from the south extends along the coast of the 
land situated to the east, and, in the sea in question, goes from 
Behring strait to Cape Barrow. All tends to the belief that in 
the waters north of Behring strait this southern current is coun- 
terbalanced—as in the Sea of Greenland and that of Kara—by a 
current of cold water passing a little to the west of Cape Barrow, 
at first toward the south, then toward the south-west. This co d 
current carries along considerable masses of ice formed at a great 
distance northward, toward the eastern coast of Wrangell’s Land, 
rendering the access to it difficult. Jn the vicinity of the seven- 
tieth degree of latitude the land prevents it from following 1ts 
route further to the south-west. It is probable that it is then 
again thrown in a north-west direction, that it traverses Long 
Sound in doubling the south-west point of Wrangell’s Land, and 
that it again enters into the polar basin, flowing under the cur- 
rents of the east, which are warm, but little salt, and consequently 
light, and which are produced by the large rivers of Siberia. It 
is clear that this current must exert an influence little favorable 
to the condition of the ices between Cape Schelagskoi and Beh- 
ring strait. Other circumstances tend, however, to diminish the 
quantity of ice and produce along the coast an open channel, 
navigable perhaps every year, at least for vessels of light draught. 
This coast is situated under a latitude southern enough for the 
new ice formed along its shores in the winter season to melt ina 
great measure during the summer, so that at the end of the hot 
season there remain only great mountains of ice, agglomerated in 
