Arctic Current.— It seems certain that a current sets into the polar basin along the coasts of Norway and Lapland. It is probably the effect of prevalent southwest winds, though some call it a branch of the Gulf Stream. There is also a strong current running in at Bering Strait. On the other hand, along the east coast of Greenland and in Baffin Bay the movement is generally south. In the numerous channels between Baffin Bay and Bering Strait the tides are regular but feeble; indeed, it seems possible to trace across Bar row Strait the line of neutralized or no tide, and this, there reason to suspect, is also the line of comparatively permanent ice.
Minerals.-- Valuable minerals, fossils, etc., have been discovered within these Arctic regions. In the archipelago north of the American continent excellent coal frequently occurs. The mineral cryolite is mined in Greenland and carried to the United States. Among other fossils the remains of large saurians are found in the Lias, which extends widely over the northern archipelago, and am monites collected in abundance prove that in lat. N. there was once a tropical tem perature. The group of islands opposite the mouth of the Lena, in lat. are little more than accumulations of fossil remains carried down by the river and are annually visited for the_purpose of digging fossil ivory.
Vegetation.— The plants peculiar to the frigid zone are stunted more by the dry winter winds than by short growing seasons and long winters. The reduction is confined to the limbs, as roots are as long and penetrate as far as in more temperate climates. The vege tation is widely distributed, the species found in North America being practically the same as those found in Europe and Asia, and since trees become more and more scarce as the Pole is approached, the prevalence of the tun dra formation is characteristic of the region. In respect to distribution, Arctic plants differ from Alpine plants (q.v.) which, though other wise similar, especially in the census of cushion and rosette plants and plants with thick skinned evergreen leaves, include many en demic species. Arctic perennials are noted for the high percentage of species that develop winter-time flowering buds which burst into bloom early in the spring. In the Arctic zone, less than 2,000 species have been de scribed, among them very few trees. These are mostly stunted willows, junipers and birches, and beyond their northern limits flowering plants, grasses, mosses and lichens extend to the most northern land seen by man. Commonest among the flowering species are crowfoots, potentillas, poppies, saxifrages, whit low grass (Draba) and scurvy grass (Cochie aria). Thyme and angelica, growing in shel tered spots, are the only perfume-bearers.
The English expedition of 1875-76 found 20 or 30 species of phancrogamous plants be tween lat. 82° and 83°. From Churchill River on the west side of Hudson Bay (lat. the line limiting the forest runs constantly to the north of west till it reaches Norton Sound, a little south of Bering Strait, larch and poplar making their appearance as we go west. In Siberia, where the summer heat is greater, woods flourish to a much higher lati tude within the Polar Circle. In the Scan
dinavian peninsula the red pine reaches lat. 69°, the Scotch fir 70°, the birch 71°. Animal life is by no means deficient within the Polar Circle. Species indeed are few, but the in dividuals are extremely numerous. The proof of this is to be found in the immense number of skins of fur-bearing animals, eider ducks, seals, walrus, etc., annually supplied to com merce. Recent expeditions have found the usual Arctic quadrupeds and birds as far north as the land extended. How far north the cetaceans reach is doubtful.
Notwithstanding this apparent abundance, the human being has in general a severe strug gle for subsistence beyond 64° north latitude, although traces of Eskimos have been found as far north as 81° 52'. The Eskimos who in habit Greenland and the extreme north of America have a hard life of it, often pressed, and not seldom cut off, by famine. Under their rigorous skies the resources derivable from the surrounding abundance of animal life can support only a handful of men. Even in Siberia, where the reindeer trained to the sledge and the great rivers frozen throughout the winter add so greatly to the facilities of intercourse or emigration, whole communities are frequently cut off by famine or disease. Yet we see Europeans settled under the paral lel of 73° at Upernavik in Greenland, of 2' at Ustyarsk in Siberia, and of 70 40' at Hammerfest in Norway, and explorers have wintered far north of this. The settlements in Greenland, northern Siberia, Kamchatka and the Hudson Bay territories are all more or less connected by trade with southern coun tries, whence they derive their power of en durance; and from the constant care required in order to guard against the consequences of the severe climate it is evident that to man the support of life within the Polar Circle must ever be difficult and precarious. Never theless, owing to the abundance of lower ani mal life, men have -visited these regions for centuries to gather the exceedingly rich har vests of furs and oil.
Following are the farthest points of north latitude reached previous to the discovery of the Pole by Peary in 1909.: 1607, Hudson, 23'; 1773, Phipps, 80° 48'; 1806, Scoresby, 81° 12' 42"; 1827, Parry, 82° 50'; 1874, Meyer (on land), 82°; 1875, Markham and Parr (Nares' expedition), 20' 26"; 1876, Payer, 83° 7'; 1884, Lockwood, 83° 24'; 1896, Nansen, 14'; 1900, Abruzzi, 86° 33'; 1906, Peary, 6'.
Conway, 'The First Cross ing of Spitzbergen); Greely,
'Handbook of Arctic Discovery' (5th ed., 1910) ; and 'Report on the Proceedings of the United States Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay' ; Hayes, 'Arctic Boat
Jack son, 'A Thousand Days in the
and 'The Great Frozen Land); Jones, T., 'Nat ural History, Geology and Physics of Green land and Adjacent
Kane,