578 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP. The point is bold and shingly, and shows every indication of the current 
being prevalent and rapid. 
Oct. This current, as I have before observed, was confined nearly to 
the surface and within a few miles of the land ; at the depth of nine 
feet its velocity was evidently diminished, and at three and five fathoms 
there was none. The upper stratum, it should be observed, was much 
fresher than sea water ; and there is no doubt that this current was 
occasioned by rivers ; but why it took a northerly course is a question 
I am not prepared to answer. 
To the northward and eastward of Cape Lisburn, we found little 
or no current until we arrived at Icy Cape. Off this projection it ran 
strong, but in opposite directions, and seemed to be influenced entirely 
by the winds. Near Point Barrow, with a south-westerly gale, it ran 
at the rate of three miles an hour and upwards to the N. E., and did 
not subside immediately with the wind ; but the current must here 
have been accelerated by the channel between the land and the ice 
becoming momentarily narrowed by the fack closing the beach ; and 
it must not be imagined that the whole body of water in the Polar 
Sea was going at the rapid rate above mentioned, which would be con- 
trary to our experiments in the offing. Another cause of this may 
be a bank lying to the westward of Icy Cape, upon one part of which 
the water shoals from thirty-two fathoms to nineteen, and the bottom is 
changed from mud to stones. 
It is evident, from the above mentioned facts, that a current 
prevails in a northerly direction, although we are unable to determine 
its rate with any precision. This, however, applies to one season of 
the year only. A more certain mode of determining the course of the 
prevailing current is, I conceive, to examine the direction of the shoals 
lying off the principal headlands upon the coast. Upon reference to 
the chart, it will be seen that off the north-west point of St. Lawrence 
Island, off Cape Prince of Wales, Cape Krusenstern, Point Hope, and 
Cape Lisburn, shoals project to the north-west. All these extend from 
the shore in the same direction, and confirm our experience of a current 
setting to the northward. 
The course of this current, after it passes Cape Lisburn, is some- 
