Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/895

ARCTIC REGION. cold water. There is anotlicr drift of water northward through Bering Strait, l)ut its vol- ume is not great.

Climate. The annual avei-age temperatures of the Arctic region are below 32° F. On the island of .Tan jtaven, 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 .Tuly 40° F. ; in December. — 2° F. ; those of Lady Frank- lin Bay, in July, 37° F.; and February, —30° F. In other Incnlities, Xares experienced a mini- mum temperature of — 74° F. ; Greely, a mini- mum of — 02° F. ; Nansen, — 52° F., and De Long. — 72° F. The distribution of average temperatures for .Tanuary sliows a great area extending northward of the central and eastern part of the Asiatic and American continents, from aliout latitude 75° to beyond the pole, over which the average temperature is below — 35° F., from which central ar<'a the temperatures increase in all directions, save on one side, to the following temperatures along tlie 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 — 60° F. in central north Asia, which is the cold pole of the globe. The distribution of average temperatures for July shows a circunipolar area of + 35° F., which lies mostly north of latitude 80°. between North America and Europe, but lies below 80° latitude elsewhere, and descends to latitude 70° in northern Alaska. From this central cold area the temperatures increase in all directions to the following values along the Arctic Circle: West- ern North Atlantic, +45° F. ; eastei-n North Atlantic, + 50° F. ; northern Europe, + 55° F. ; northern Asia, + ti0° F. ; Bering Strait, +45° F., and northern North America, + 55° F. The winds in .Tanuary near the pole are generally frotn the north in the neighborhood of BaflSn's Bay and northward of Nortli America. l)ut north of Asia they appear to be from the south, veering toward the east over nortliern Euro])e. In .Tilly 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 .Tanuary, and between CO and 70 per cent, in July. The annual precipitation is in general less than 10 inches in the Arctic 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 000 feet below the surface down to great depths the temperature is about 1° F. above freezing.

Inhabitants. Hanging across the North American continent, above the Arctic Circle, from 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 bo of Mongolian origin ; by other authorities to be derived from American Indian stock. They live by hunting and fishing, s]icak an aggluti- nate langiuigc, have no written characters and no vvell-define<l form of government. Whether they have a well-dclincd form of religion has not been detinitely 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 spirits." Otlier 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 arc the Lapps and Finns, an<l a series of tribes, probably of jlongo- lian origin, living in the northern part of Si- beria ; the Samoyedes, Tunguses, Yakuts, Yuka- hires, and Tchuktchis. These tribes are sup- ported, some by hunting and fishing, but 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 tho.se that build villages of timber. Tho.se that depend for livelihood upf)n their herds of reindeer are some- times forced to wander to fresh tundra ; those that depend upon hunting and fishing follow the game from j)hice to place.

Flora and Fauna. The general similarity of modern life-forms throughout the Arctic lands, which has liecn 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.

Arctic Plants. In many respects these plants, wliose natural habitats are in high latitudes, resemble alpine plants (q.v.), and, like them, form one of tlie three climatic groups of xerophytes (q.v.). Dwarf growth is one of the chief characteristics of Arctic vegetation, and is remarkably well illustrated in a juniper stem reported by Kihlman: The stem was but 3^,^ inches thick, and yet showed 544 growth rings. Plants that grow to a height of one or two feet in S.weden are but one or two inches high in the far North. As in the case of alpine plants, reduction is confined to the stems and leaves, the roots' and Mowers being as large as in warmer climates. Cushion and rosette plants are well developed. The leaf structure is highly xerophytic, leathery and thick-skinned evergreen leaves being particularly abundant.

The Arctic life conditions have been especially well described by Kihlman (PflanzenhioJoijische i^tiidien aus Russifich-Lapliiitd. 1800, etc.). The cold and darkness of the long winter nights have but little influence on the vegetation. Of greater importance are the short vegetative period, which excludes many plant species from life in Arctic regions, and the jirevalence of dry winds at times when transpiration losses cannot be made good. Kihlman thinks that this latter factor is the chief cause of Arctic phenomena. The absence of trees, then, is due not to the shortness of the