Arctic Ocean

“ How the littoral waters, by being diluted from the rivers and the rains, serve as a mantle for the Salter and warmer sea water below.—The hydrographic basin of the Arctic Ocean is large, and it delivers into that sea annually a very copious drainage. Such an immense volume of fresh water discharged into so small a sea as the Arctic Ocean is, must go far towards diluting its brine. ”

“ A stillness like death reigns over all the surrounding forms of ice, and the frozen ocean stretches out beneath a vast shroud. A sunless leaden sky spreads over all, not a breath of air stirs, it is neither warm nor cold, slowly melts the snow, and this pale realm of ice forms a world of danger and difficulty, against which are matched the strength and sagacity of three-and-twenty men! ”

“ The hypothesis of an open sea in the Arctic Ocean becomes necessary to supply a source for this vapour; for the winds, entering the Arctic Ocean as they do after passing over land and mountain heights of America, Europe, and Asia, must be robbed of much of their moisture ere they reach that ocean; it will require an abundant supply of vapour to create there by precipitation and the liberation of latent heat a degree of rarefaction sufficient to cause a general movement of the air polarward for the distance of 40° of latitude all round. ”

“ What I propose to do is to sink down below the bottom of the ice in the arctic regions, and then to proceed in a direct line northward to the pole. The distance between the lower portions of the ice and the bottom of the Arctic Ocean I believe to be quite sufficient to allow me all the room needed for navigation. I do not think it necessary to even consider the contingency of the greatest iceberg or floe reaching the bottom of the arctic waters; consequently, without trouble or danger, the Dipsey can make a straight course for the extreme north. ”

“ The under-current must, therefore, rise to the surface somewhere near the pole, with its temperature necessarily only a little, if at all, below the freezing-point—which, be it observed, is a warm temperature for such regions. Here, then, where the warm waters from the south rise to the surface, it is supposed this open Arctic Ocean must exist. So much for theory. Now for facts that have been observed, and that tend, more or less, to corroborate this proposition of an open polar sea. The habits of the whale have gone far to prove it. ”

“ Nearly all of the Arctic Ocean adjacent to the coast of America is as yet unexplored, and we have therefore no direct testimony as to its flora and fauna. We may reasonably assume, however, that the life is there practically the 15 same as in the waters of similar depth to the north of Eurasia. ”

“ The Arctic Ocean encircles with a belt of eternal ice the desert confines of Siberia and North America—the uttermost limits of the Old and New worlds, separated by the narrow, channel, known as Behring's Straits. ”

“ That there is an immense volume of comparatively warm water going into the Arctic Ocean is abundantly shown by observation, and the rising up there of this water to the surface would afford heat and vapour enough for a vast degree of rarefaction. ”

“ One of the most interesting features of Arctic waters, especially between Greenland and Spitsbergen and to the north of Spitsbergen well into the Polar Basin, is the existence of an intermediate layer of comparatively warm water in the Arctic Ocean between the surface colder water and the colder water beneath. ”

“ In the north polar game the last stage of the journey—from 500 to 600 miles, according to the route selected, whether Grant Land or Greenland or Franz-Josef Land—is over the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean. This ocean breaks up every summer, the great fields of ice drifting under the influence of wind and tide to an eventual exit into the North Atlantic; and at any time of year, even the depth of the severest winter, a storm will rift the icy surface in many places with cracks and lanes of open water, and throw up great ridges of ice-blocks by the pressure of the ice-fields. ”

“ Sir James Ross states that in both Polar oceans the colour of the sea changes in the neighbourhood of ice, and that the dull brownish colour sometimes seen near pack-ice in the Antarctic Ocean is owing to an infinite number of animalculæ. The rapid fall of the temperature of the water to the zero point is another indication that ice is near.
26. Of all the ice-formations in the Arctic Seas, icebergs are the most enormous. “It is well known that ice is not by any means so heavy as water, but readily floats upon its surface. ”

“ Pieces a yard square slowly rise up on end before the pressure and, falling back, shiver into fragments which scurry across the smooth surface of the sheet until they are arrested and become frozen to the main surface. Everywhere when the forward movement is on there is noise of creaking, groaning, and cracking, and everywhere on the ice sheet there is evidence of the force exerted.
The Arctic Ocean may be likened to such a pond, only two thousand miles across and with ice upon its surface which never melts and is always being forced one way or the other by tide, wind, or current. ”

“ Marvellous as are those cosmical revolutions belonging to the period of emergence of the northern zone of America from the great Arctic Ocean, when we look on each completed whole the process appears to have been characterised by no abnormal violence. Slowly through long centuries the ocean shallowed. The deep-sea organisms of a former generation were overlaid by the littoral shells of a newer marine life, and then the tidal waves retreated from the emerging sea-beach ”

“ That year ice was reported in great quantities as far south as latitude 40°, and there is every reason to believe that there was more ice run into than was ever reported by one unlucky liner and five tramps which were posted at Lloyd's as 'Missing.' The Western Ocean is no-peace-at-any-price body of water, and it tries those who sail it as high as any sea in the world, but when the Arctic turns itself loose and empties its refrigerator into the ocean fairway it becomes what seamen call 'a holy terror.'. ”

“ The Arctic Sea, more especially the North Polar Basin, might thus be considered as a lung or reservoir in the circulation of the ocean where the water produces very little life, and thus, as it were, gets time to rest and accumulate those substances necessary for organic life, which are everywhere present only in quite minimal quantities. ”

“ But as animal and vegetable life are largely affected by climate, it may be justly said that wherever an Arctic climate prevails there we shall find an Arctic or Polar region; and, hence, many countries below even the 60th parallel, such as Kamtschatka, Labrador, and South Greenland, fall within the Circumpolar boundary.
The waters surrounding the North Pole bear the general designation of the Arctic Ocean. But here again it is almost impossible to particularize any uniform limit southward. It joins the Pacific at Behring Strait in about lat. ”

“ All these and various other similar accounts of north-east, north-west, or Polar passages achieved by vessels in former times have this in common, that navigation from the one ocean to the other across the Polar Sea is said to have gone on as easily as drawing a line on the map, that meeting with ice and northern animals of the chase is never spoken of, and finally that every particular which is noted is in conflict with the known geographical, climatal, and natural conditions of the Arctic seas. ”

“ Other reasons are that from the closer neighborhood of the continents, and from the action of the Gulf Stream on the one side and the Japan current on the other, and from the fact that the earth is in perihelion during the winter season of the Northern hemisphere, and in aphelion during the winter of the Southern hemisphere, the Arctic Sea is more free from ice, which in the Antarctic region is an impregnable barrier in the way of discovery. ”

“ This is the water which, after passing the Grand Banks and meeting the diluted water as an ice-bearing current from the north, dips down, but continues its course as an under current. It is protected from farther loss of heat, after the manner of our own littoral waters, by the colder but lighter and upper current from the north, until it enters the Arctic Ocean, there to rise up like a boiling spring in the centre of an open sea. ”

“ Contrary to the rule in the Equatorial seas, we find in the Polar-ocean an increase of temperature from the surface downwards, in consequence of the warmer under-currents, flowing from the south northwards, and passing beneath the cold waters of the superficial Arctic current. ”

“ In the autumn of 1850 there were fifteen vessels in the Arctic ocean, hunting for Franklin and his ships. America joined England in the search, and as a result the Arctic regions became far better known than ever before. ”

“ The opposite hemisphere contains more land than water; and when it is in its turn placed above the horizon, the Atlantic will be seen lying almost wholly on the western side of the meridian, and forming, with the Arctic ocean, a species of channel, narrowing from the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope towards the northern pole, and communicating with the great ocean which lies principally in the opposite hemisphere by Behring's straits. ”

“ The harvests of ice are carried across the Arctic Ocean until they are brought up by the American coast and islands, where they are completely stopped. Then the ice gradually increases from annual snow falls and other causes until it becomes upwards of a hundred feet in thickness. There is some movement in the summer, and a tendency eastward to the north of Ellesmere Island and Greenland, to join the Greenland current. ”

“ The rarer occurrence of land at the South Pole permits freer scope to the currents of the sea, diminishes the opportunity for the growth of ice on the coasts, tends to widen the passages in the network of water-ways, and thus facilitates navigation. Even the swell of the sea within the ice is observed in the [14] South Polar Ocean, while it is never seen in the North. ”

“ It would be difficult for those who oppose the existence of an open water here in the Arctic Ocean to discover a force there which, during the extreme cold months of the northern night, when the ice is making all the time, could tear from its fastenings and move 51⁄2 miles a day all through the winter and spring a disc of ice seven feet thick [7] and 1800 geographical miles in diameter. ”

“ To studies of the ocean and atmosphere in very high latitudes science is largely indebted for new facts in magnetism, in the movements of the air and causes of climate, in the formation and behavior of ice and icebergs, in the action of tides and ocean-currents, and in many other departments of knowledge, all of which have been made of use especially to the navigator. Nor has this cost over much. Attention has been called to every casualty, and the romantic light of adventure has brought into high relief all the hardships and sometimes horrors of Arctic experience ”

“ During nearly two-thirds of the year the arctic regions are under the absolute dominion of winter; and for many weeks of that bitter season they are shrouded with the mantle of a dark, sunless night. The entire ocean is locked in the embrace of a covering of ice many feet thick, so that its liquid aspect is thoroughly removed; and, owing to ice-masses scattered over its surface, together with mounds of drifted snow, it bears a much stronger resemblance to the land than to the sea. ”

“ In the Arctic basin the clouds, the melted snow, and the great rivers, which have their mouths on the north of both continents, produce considerable quantities of fresh water, which, mixing with the waves of the Polar Sea, form a bed of mean density light enough to maintain itself and flow off towards the Atlantic Ocean. ”

“ Here the warmer low-latitude air ascends over the colder polar air creating a zone of cloudiness and precipitation.
In the Arctic, the general circulation is greatly modified by surrounding landmasses. Winds over the Arctic Ocean are somewhat variable, and strong surface winds are rarely encountered. ”

“ As already said, the ice belt is the dividing line between salt and fresh waters.
This being the case, large expanses of the ocean in the Arctic region must be frozen over. As water is an exception to most everything else by growing lighter as it grows colder, it rises above its water level. Without this provision of Nature, our lakes would become solid masses of ice, and rivers would become mountains, thus extinguishing fish and producing a mass so deep and solid that a summer season would hardly melt away. ”

“ At the same time, we would caution our readers against jumping to the opposite extreme. The dark side of the picture is in reality out of all proportion to the light. And we do not hesitate to state our confirmed opinion, that the arctic regions are more interesting to read about than pleasant to dwell in.
Having, then, defended the lights, let us commence our investigations with the shadows.
Those oceans lying within the arctic circle exhibit phenomena so grand, so wonderful, and so varied, that they claim distinct and separate treatment from the ocean as a whole. ”

“ In those centuries when the Natural Sciences were little cultivated, when the theories of the Trade Winds, of Equatorial and Polar sea-currents, were still unknown, and when as yet the processes in the Frozen Ocean had not been submitted to scientific investigation, we cannot be surprised at the preconceptions which were formed concerning its phenomena. ”

“ We now [375] moved on under sail: the “ice-holes” increased in size, the ice diminished, and the swell of the ocean was perceptibly greater. Our latitude at noon next day was 77° 49′. A large “ice-hole” opened before us, and with a sea running high, the boats, making a good deal of water, we sailed into it—it was the last ice-hole. The last line of ice lay ahead of us, and beyond it the boundless open sea!
FAREWELL TO THE FROZEN OCEAN.
33. ”