CLIMATE. The annual average temperatures of the Arctic region are below 32° F. On the island of Jan Mayen, 29° F.; in Spitzbergen, 22° F. Sea of Kara, 13° F.; Point Barrow, 8° F.; Lady Franklin Bay, 2" F. In Spitz bergen the average temperatures are in Jul,y 40' F. ; in December. — 2° F. those of Lady Frank lin Bay, in July, 37° F.; and February, —39° F. In other localities, Naves experienced a mini mum temperature of —74° F.; Greely, a mini mum of —62° F.: Nan-ten. —52' F., and De Long. — 72° F. The distribution of average temperatures for -January shows a groat area extending northward of the central and eastern part of the Asiatic and American continents, from about latitude 75° to beyond the pole, over which the average temperature is — F., from which central area the temperatures increase in all directions, save on one side, to the following temperatures along the Arctic Circle: —30° F. on the North American Con tinent, + 30° F. in Iceland and the North At lantic, + 5° F. in north Europe. — 10° F. at Bering Strait, — 31° F. in eastern north Asia; but there is actually a decrease of temperature from the Polar region to F. in central north Asia, which is the cold pole of the globe. The distribution of average temperatures for .July shows a circumpolar area of + 35° F., which lies mostly north of latitude 80', between North America and Europe. lint lies below SO° latitude elsewhere, and descends to latitude 70° in northern Alaska. From this central eold area the temperatures increase in all directions to the following values along the Arctic Circle: West ern North Atlantic, + 45° F.; eastern North Atlantic, + 50° F. northern Europe, + 55° F.; northern Asia, + GO° F. Bering Strait, + 45° F., and northern North America. + 55° F. The winds in January near the pole are generally from the north in the neighborhood of Baflin's Bay and northward of North America, but north of Asia they appear to be from the south, veering toward the east over northern Europe. In July the winds are from the southwest in Baffin's Bay. from the northwest. in the archipelago northward of North America, from the east north of Alaska, from the northeast north of Asia, from the north or northeast north of Europe, and from the north-northeast or north west in the North Atlantic. The cloudiness averages probably between 40 and 50 per cent. in January, and between GO and 70 per cent. in July. The annual precipitation is in general less than 10 inches in the regions, and most of it falls as snow.
The temperature of the Arctic waters varies from several degrees above freezing to even slightly below freezing at and near the surface; but from a distance of 500 or 600 feet below the surface down to great depths the temperature is about 1° F. above freezing.
ImiABITANTS. Banging across the North American continent, above the Arctic Circle, front Alaska to the eastern end of the archipela go, and also settled on both the west and the east coasts of Greenland, are tribes of Eskimos, a race of aborigines, believed by certain authorities to be of _Mongolian origin; by other authorities to be derived from American Indian stock. They live by hunting and fishing, speak an aggluti nate language, have no written elm racters and no well-defined form of government. Whether they have a well-defined form of religion has not been definitely determined. Peary, who examined with some care the isolated tribe in the Whale Sound region of Greenland, reports that the nearest approach to religion is "simply a collec tion of miscellaneous superstitions and beliefs in good and evil Other observers, how ever, report that they have some belief in a future life. For further information see ESKI MO ; GREENLAND ; ALASKA, etc. The other im portant Arctic inhabitants are the Lapps and Finns, and a series of tribes, probably of Mongo lian origin, living in the northern part of Si beria; the Samoyedes, Tungu,es, Vakuts, Yuka hires, and Tchuktchis. These tribes are sup sonic by uniting and fishing, lint most by herds of reindeer, which find sustenance in the moss of the tundra. But all the tribes are more or less nomadic in their habits—even those that build villages of timber. Those that depend for livelihood upon their herds of reindeer are some times forced to wander to fresh tundra; those that depend upon hunting and fishing follow the ganie from place to place.
Ft.onA AND FAUNA. The general similarity of modern life-forms throughout the Arctic lands, which has been noted by Heilprin and others, is interesting from a geological standpoint, in that it shows that areas now separated by stretches of water were probably connected in past ages. It seems quite certain that the area now occupied by Bering Sea and Bering Strait was in com paratively recent times a land surface, and that there was a migration of fauna and flora between the American and the Euro-Asian continents. However, the uniformity of conditions over wide areas is also undoubtedly a factor causing simi larities of life-forms, as is shown by the fact that isolated Antarctic islands have closely similar floras.