1881.] Geography and Travels. 343 
traveled in other parts of the Arctic, and from my own observa- 
tions, I believe that nowhere else within the Arctic Circle does 
ice remain permanently so far south as between Wrangell Land 
and Point Barrow.’ } 
No traces of the missing whalers were found and there can be 
no doubt that they and their crews perished in the pack. 
Mr. W. H. Dall, of the U, S. Coast Survey, continued his ex- 
plorations in Alaska and the northern coast of America during 
the past season, being accompanied by Dr. Bean, who has also 
been making the zodlogical collections in this region for a number 
of summers, for the U. S. Fish Commission. 
After visiting the inland waters of British Columbia and Alaska, 
they arrived at Sitka and proceeded thence along the coast to 
Cook’s Inlet, westward to Unalaskha, and northward through 
Behring Strait along the American coast to the Seahorse Islands, 
not very far west of Point Barrow, where the ice barred their way. 
Forty-two stations were occupied during the season for astronomi- 
cal, magnetic, meteorological and hydrographical observations. 
A hydrothermal section of Behring Strait was made, which Mr. 
Dall states confirms his previous suspicions that there is no south- 
erly Polar current through these straits, and that the existing cur- 
rents are dependent chiefly on the tides. The warm northerly 
current through the straits is chiefly derived from the shallow 
sounds and large rivers of the adjacent American coast, and is 
warmer than any water found south of St. Lawrence Island, at the 
southern entrance to the strait2- 
e b 
found to pass between the Diomede Islands, as stated in the 
treaty. An immense “ dead” glacier was observed on the north- 
most remarkable ice phenomenon in Kotzebue Sound, visited by 
Kotzebue, Beechey, and the officers of the Herald, whose 
it may here be noted that the general experience of navigators north of Behring 
Strait has been that the eal part of the summer season is the only time Herald 
Island or Wrangell Land can ‘be approached. The action of the warm current from 
the Pacific is quickly felt on the ice fields south of latitude 71°, and west of longi- 
of the oppos 
a 'rom Cape Serdze on the Asiatic coast to Cape Krusenstern on the 
re, i i 
n ave causes it, as well as Wrangell Land, to be unapproa rae 
coal ising; i i ally believ at a 
Cbasi Reise _are surprising; it having heretofore been generally - 
Passe. portion of the great equatorial current of the Pacific, the Kuro-Siv 
edie, rouge the strait, and they invite the careful examination of g ers. 
