Title: Discovery
Identifier: discovery0102londuoft (find matches)
Year: [1] (s)
Authors:
Subjects: Science
Publisher: London (etc. ) Professional and Industrial Pub. Co. (etc. )
Contributing Library: Gerstein - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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90 DISCOVERY
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rate found by Nansen averaged about one mile per day. The relation between the Greenland Current and the Polar Basin is therefore similar to that between a mill-, race and a sluggish pond which it drains. To keep the race fed a big gathering-ground is necessarj^: and it is therefore a fair deduction that the bigger part of the unexplored area is likely to be ice-covered sea. This is the state of knowledge about the Polar Basin ; and sporadic attempts have alreadj' been made to find the new land. To Mikkelsen and Leffingwell belongs the credit of first venturing out (in 1907) from the Alaskan coast on to the polar ice, though their journey was hardly long enough to give definite results. Ste- fansson's wondci ful trip from Martin Point in Alaska to Banks Land in 1914 was a much longer journey, but is just as inconclusive. On the information gained, however, he arranged for one of his men, Storkersen, to make a still longer trip. Storkersen sledged out about 150 miles from the Alaskan coast in April 1918 ; and then lived on a drifting floe for six months. His observations show that there is little or no true current: the wind is the controlling factor, and imder its influence he zigzagged back and forwards for a long time over tlie same ground, just as did the J can mil e and the Fram during their drifts. Then, unfortunately, before anj' conclusion could be arriv^ed at as to the direction of the drift, Storkersen had to return owing to ill-health. Among other things, however, he brought

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