INTRODUCTION. 
27 
The Arctic Ocean, not only in snmmer, but also during winter, 
is occasionally free of ice, and at a distance of 200 versts from the 
coast, the sea is open even in winter, in what direction, however, 
is uncertain. The. latter fact is also confirmed by Wrangel’s 
journeys with dog-sledges on the ice in 1821-1823. 
A third person says, According to the information which I 
have received, the north coast, from the mouth of the Lena to 
that of the Indigirka, is free from ice from July to September. 
The north wind drives the ice towards the coast, but not in 
large masses. According to the observations of the men who 
search for mammoth tusks, the sea is open as far as the 
southern part of the New Siberia Islands. It is probable that 
these islands form a protection against the ice in the Werchnojan 
region. It is otherwise on the Kolyma coast; and if the 
Kolyma can be reached from Behring’s Straits, so certainly can 
the Lena.’’ 
The circumstance that the ice during summer is driven from 
the coast by southerly winds, yet not so far but that it returns, 
in larger or smaller quantity, with northerly winds, is further 
confirmed by other correspondents, and appears to me to 
show that the New Siberian Islands and Wrangel’s Land only 
form links in an exteusive group of islands, running parallel with 
the north coast of Siberia, which, on the one hand, keeps the 
ice from the intermediate sea from drifting away altogether, and 
favours the formation of ice during winter, but, on the other 
hand, protects the coast from the Polar ice proper, formed to the 
north of the islands. The information I have received besides, 
refers principally to the summer months. As in the Kara 
Sea, which formerly had a yet worse reputation, the ice here, 
too, perhaps, melts away for the most part during autumn, so 
that at this season we may reckon on a pretty open sea. 
Most of the correspondents, who have given information 
about the state of the ice in the Siberian Polar Sea, concern 
themselves further with the reports current in Siberia, that 
American whalers have been seen from the coast far to the 
westward. The correctness of these reports w^as always denied 
in the most decided way: yet they rest, at least to some 
extent, on a basis of fact. For I have myself met with a 
whaler, who for three years in a steamer carried on trade with 
the inhabitants of the coast from Cape Yakan to Behring’s 
Straits. He was quite convinced that some years at least it 
would be possible to sail from Behring’s Straits to the Atlantic. 
On one occasion he had returned through Behring’s Straits as 
late as the I7th October. 
