THE OPEN POLAR SEA.—WIDTH OF THE POLAR BASIN.—BOUNDARIES OF THE POLAR BASIN.—POLAR CURRENTS.—POLAR ICE.—THE ICE-BELT.—ARCTIC NAVIGATION AND DISCOVERY.—THE RUSSIAN SLEDGE EXPLORATIONS.—WRANGEL'S OPEN SEA.—PARRY'S BOAT EXPEDITION.—DR. KANE'S DISCOVERIES.—EXPANSION OF SMITH SOUND.—GENERAL CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM MY OWN DISCOVERIES AND THOSE OF MY PREDECESSORS.
Let us pause here a few moments, in order that we may take a brief survey of the Polar Basin and arrive at a correct understanding of what is meant by the term, "Open Polar Sea," so often used.
By referring to the circumpolar map, the reader will be able to form a more accurate judgment than he could from the most elaborate description. He will observe that about the North Pole of the earth there is an extensive sea, or, more properly, ocean, with an average diameter of more than two thousand miles. He will observe that this sea is almost completely surrounded by land, and that its shores are, for the most part, well defined,— the north coasts of Greenland and Grinnell Land, which project farthest into it, being alone undetermined. He will note that these shores occupy, to a certain extent, a uniform distance from the Pole, and are everywhere within the region of perpetual frost. He will remember that they are inhabited everywhere by people of the same race, to whom the soil yields no subsistence, who live exclusively by hunting and fishing, and confine their dwelling-places either to the coast or to the banks of
