Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/204

200 in which meteorological investigation has been carried out in the North Polar Regions, the international co-operation of 1881 and 1882 being the only instance where a systematic attempt was made to study the meteorology of the Arctic Regions as a whole, and even these stations were not in existence for a long enough period. Yet it was largely the study of these records that enabled Nansen to plan his expedition in the Fram, and to venture to boldly thrust his ship into the ice-pack, confident that the drift would carry it right across to the open water at the other side of the Pole. Peary, in his many sledging expeditions from the north coasts of Greenland and Grant Land towards the Pole, found the ice-floes always moving eastward, indicating a drift of the Arctic water in that direction. There is no doubt that a systematic study of the winds of the Arctic and subarctic Regions in relation to their cyclonic and anticyclonic systems is of the utmost importance, as upon these winds depend very largely the direction and flow of Arctic currents and Arctic ice-pack. Given prevailingly north-east winds over Franz Josef Land, even if they are very light, then the polar pack comes driving past that archipelago, not only the north but also the south of it by the straits between it and the north of Novaya Zemlya. Jamming against the east coast of Wilczek Land, and