Page:EB1911 - Volume 21.djvu/995

 Biological Conditions.—The development of organic life is comparatively poor in those parts of the Arctic Sea which are continuously covered by ice. This is, amongst other things, proved by the bottom deposits, which contain exceptionally little carbonate of lime of organic origin. The reason is evidently that the thick ice prevents to a great extent the development of plant life on the surface of the sea by absorbing the light, and as the plant life forms the base for the development of animal life, this has also very unfavourable conditions. The result is that—e.g. in the interior of the North Polar Basin—there is exceptionally little plant life in the sea under the ice-covering, and the animal life both near the surface and in deeper strata is very poor in individuals, whilst it is comparatively rich in species. Near the outskirts of the Arctic Sea, where the sea is more or less open during the greater part of the year, the pelagic plant life as well as animal life is unusually rich, and, especially during the early summer, there is often here such a development of plankton (i.e. pelagic life) on the sea-surface as is hardly found in any other part of the ocean. It seems as if the polar water is specially favourable for the development of pelagic plant life, which makes the flora, and consequently also the fauna, flourish as soon as the ice covering disappears and the water surface is exposed to the full sunlight of the long Arctic day. At the same time the temperature of the water uses, and thus the conditions for the chemical changes of matter and nutritive assimilation are much improved. 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. It is also a remarkable fact of interest in this connexion that the greatest fisheries of the world seem to be limited to places where waters from the Arctic Ocean and from more southern seas meet—e.g. Newfoundland, Iceland, Lofoten and Finmarken in Norway.

The mammalian life is also exceptionally rich in individuals along the outskirts of the Arctic Sea. We meet in those waters, especially along the margin of the drifting ice, enormous quantities of seals of various kinds. as well as whales, which live on the plankton and the fishes in the water. A similar development of mammalian life IS not met with anywhere else in the ocean, except perhaps in the Antarctic Ocean and Bering Sea, where, however, similar conditions are present. In the interior of the Arctic Sea or the North Polar Basin mammalian life is very poor, and consists mostly of some straggling polar bears which probably occasionally wander everywhere over the whole expanse of ice, some seals, especially Phoca foetida, which has been seen as far north as between 84° and 85° N., and a few whales, especially the narwhal, which has been seen in about 85° N.

The bird life is also exceptionally rich on the outskirts of the Arctic Sea, and the coasts of most Arctic lands are every summer inhabited by millions of sea-birds, forming great colonies almost on every rock. These birds are also dependent for their living on the rich plankton of the surface of the sea. In the interior of the Arctic Sea the bird life is very poor, but straggling seabirds may probably be met with occasionally everywhere, during summer-time, over the whole North Polar Basin.

.—For very full references to polar exploration see A. W. Greely, Handbook of Polar Discovery (4th ed., London and New York, 1910), and for a nearly complete bibliography of earlier polar literature see J. Chavanne and others, The Literature of the Polar Regions (Vienna, 1878). W. Scoresby, An Account of the Arctic Regions (2 vols. Edinburgh, 1820), W. E. Parry, Attempt to reach the North Pole (London, 1828); S. Osborn, The Discovery of the North-West Passage (London, 1857); M‘Clintock, A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin, &c. (London, 1859); G. S. Nares, Voyage to the Polar Sea, 1875–1876 (2 vols, London, 1878), A. H. Markham, The Great Frozen Sea (London, 1878, &c); J. Richardson, The Polar Regions (Edinburgh, 1861); A v. Middendorff, “Der Golfstrom ostwärts vom Nordkap,” Petermanns Mitteilungen (Gotha, 1871); A Petermann, “Die Erschliessung eines Theiles des nördlichen Eismeeres im Karischen Meere, 1870,” Petermanns Mitteilungen (1871); and numerous other papers in the same periodical, C. R. Markham, The Threshold of the Unknown Region (London, 1873), Die zweite deutsche Nordpolfahrt unter Führung des Capt. K. Koldewey (2 vols, Leipzig, 1873–1874); Manual of the Natural History, Geology, and Physics of Greenland and the neighbouring Regions, published by the Admiralty (London, 1875); Arctic Geology and Ethnology, published by the Royal Geographical Society (London, 1875), C. Weyprecht, Die Metamorphosen des Polareises (Vienna, 1879); papers on the results of the Austro-Hungarian Expedition, 1872–1874, in Petermanns Mitteilungen (1875, and especially 1878), J. Payer, New Lands within the Arctic Circle (2 vols, London, 1876), E Bessels, ''Scientific Results of the US. Arctic Expedition, C. F. Hall commanding'', vol i. (Washington, 1874), Die amerikanische Nordpol-Expedition (Leipzig, 1879), The Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition, 1876–1878, especially H. Mohn, “The North Ocean its Depths, Temperature and Circulation” (Christiania, 1887), and “Chemistry,” by H. Tornöe and L. Schmelck (Christiania, 1880, 1882); A. E. Nordenskiöld, The Voyage of the “Vega” (London, 1881); several reports on the six voyages of the “Willem Barents” in the summers of 1878 to 1883, published in Dutch (Amsterdam and Haarlem, 1879–1887); De Long, The Voyage of the “Jeannette”, the Ship and Ice Journals of George W. De Long (2 vols, London, 1883), Otto Pettersson, “Contributions to the Hydrography of the Siberian Sea,” in Vega-Expeditionens vetenskapliga Iakttagelser, vol ii. (Stockholm, 1883); Axel Hamberg, “Hydrografisk Kemiska Iakttagelser under den svenska Expeditionen till Grönland, 1883,” Bihang till k. svenska vet.-akad Handlingar, vol. ix. No. 16 and vol. x. No. 13 (Stockholm, 1884 and 1885), O. Krümmel, Handbuch der Ozeanographie (2 vols, Stuttgart, 2nd ed, 1907, &c); C. Ryder, “Den Ostgrönlandske Expedition,” Meddelelser om Grönland, pt. xvii. (Copenhagen, 1895); Isforhldene i Nordhavet 1877–1892, with 10 charts (Copenhagen, 1896); O. Pettersson and G. Ekman, “Die hydrographischen Verhältnisse der oberen Wasserschichten des nördlichen Nordmeeres zwischen Spitzbergen, Grönland und der norwegischen Küste in den Jahren 1896 und 1897,” ''Bihang till der K. Svenska Vet -Akad. handlingar'', vol xxiii. pt. ii No. 4, The Danish Ingolf Expedition; see especially M. Knudsen, “Hydrography,” in vol. i (Copenhagen, 1899), F. Nansen, Farthest North (2 vols, London, 1897), The Norwegian North Polar Expedition, 1893–1896: Scientific Results; see especially F. Nansen, “The Oceanography of the North Polar Basin,” in vol. ii No. 9; “Some Results of the Norwegian Arctic Expedition, 1893–1896,” Geographical Journal (London, May 1897). By V. Garde and others there are, since 1895, yearly reports with charts of the state of the ice of the Arctic seas, in the Nautical-Meteorological Annual of the Danish Meteorological Institute (Copenhagen) Several Russian papers in various Russian periodicals, e.g. N. Knipovitch, “Material concerning the Hydrology of the White Sea and the Murman Sea,” ''Bulletin de l'académie imp. des sciences de St Pétersbourg'' (October 1897); Prince B. Galitzin, “On the Extension of the Gulf Stream in the Arctic Ocean,” ibid. (November 1898, both in Russian), &c; N. Knipovitch, “Hydrologische Untersuchungen im europaischen Eismeer,” ''Ann. d. Hydr u. marit. Meteorolog.'' (1905), Filip Akerblom, “Recherches océanographiques Expedition de M. A. G. Nathorst en 1899,” Upsala Univesitets Arsskrift (1903). ''Math. och Naturvetenskap II.'' (Upsala, 1904); Axel Hamberg, “Hydrographische Arbeiten der von A. G. Nathorst geleiteten schwedischen Polarexpedition 1898,” ''Kongl. svenska vet -akad.'' Handlingar, vol. xli. No. 1 (Stockholm, 1906), F. Nansen, “Northern Waters,” Videnskabs Selskabets Skrifter, vol. i. No. 3 (Christiania, 1906); B. Helland-Hansen and F. Nansen, “The Norwegian Sea,” Report on Norwegian Fishery and Marine Investigations, vol. ii. No 2 (Bergen, 1909); Duc d’Orléans, Croisière océanographique dans la Mer du Grönland en 1905 (Brussels, 1909), see especially B. Helland-Hansen and E. Koefoed, Hydrographie.

History of Antarctic Exploration.—Although the Antarctic region was not reached by the first explorer until the Arctic region had been for centuries a resort of adventurers in search of the route to the East, the discovery of the south polar region was really the more direct outcome of the main stream of geographical exploration. It was

early understood by the Greek geographers that the known world covered only a small portion of the northern hemisphere and that the whole southern hemisphere awaited exploration, with its torrid, temperate and frigid zones repeating the climatic regions familiar in the northern hemisphere, the habitable land of the south temperate zone being separated from the known world by the practically impassable belt of the torrid zone. During the middle ages the sphericity of the earth came to be viewed as contrary to Scripture and was generally discredited, and it was not until Prince Henry the Navigator began in 1418 to encourage the penetration of the torrid zone in the effort to reach India by circumnavigating Africa that the exploration of the southern hemisphere began. The doubling of the Cape of Good Hope in