A SUGGESTION. 
309 
showed us the remains of a village, surrounded by the 
bones of seals, walrus, and whales—all now cased in 
ice. In impressive connection with the same facts, 
showing not only the former extension of the Esqui¬ 
maux race to the higher north, but the climatic 
changes which may perhaps be still in progress there, 
is the sledge-runner which Mr. Morton saw on the 
shores of Morris Bay, in latitude 81°. It was made 
of the bone of a whale, and worked out with skilful 
labor. (8Z) 
In this recapitulation of facts, I am not entering 
upon the question of a warmer climate impressed upon 
this region in virtue of a physical law which extends 
the isotherms toward the Pole. Still less am I dis¬ 
posed to express an opinion as to the influence which 
ocean-currents may exert on the temperature of these 
far-northern regions: there is at least one man, an 
officer in the same service with myself, and whose 
scientific investigations do it honor, with whom I am 
content to leave that discussion. But I would respect¬ 
fully suggest to those whose opportunities facilitate the 
inquiry, whether it may not be that the Gulf Stream, 
traced already to the coast of Novaia Zemlia, is de¬ 
flected by that peninsula into the space around the Pole. 
It would require a change in the mean summer tem¬ 
perature of only a few degrees to develop the periodical 
recurrence of open water. The conditions which define 
the line of perpetual snow and the limits of the glacier 
formation may have certainly a proximate application 
to the problem of such water-spaces near the Pole. ( ' ,!> 
