. SKETCH JL\P OF THE POL.\R REGIONS. Series of crosses mark drift of ice-boxmd ships: single crosses indicate furthest advances into unexplored area of Arctic Ocean between .\laska and the North Pole. The probable course of Amundsen's drift is shown. strictly applicable only to its south-eastern part. This will prove a difficult region to explore. Stefansson maintains that what he calls the pole of inaccessibility in the north lies in lat. 83° 50' N., long. 160° W., that is, 370 nautical miles from the geographical pole on the meridian which passes about 80 miles west of Alaska's most northerl
. SKETCH JL\P OF THE POL.\R REGIONS. Series of crosses mark drift of ice-boxmd ships: single crosses indicate furthest advances into unexplored area of Arctic Ocean between .\laska and the North Pole. The probable course of Amundsen's drift is shown. strictly applicable only to its south-eastern part. This will prove a difficult region to explore. Stefansson maintains that what he calls the pole of inaccessibility in the north lies in lat. 83° 50' N., long. 160° W., that is, 370 nautical miles from the geographical pole on the meridian which passes about 80 miles west of Alaska's most northerly cape. The drift tactics of Nansen and Amundsen might be tried, but with less hope of success than farther west, at least until more is known of the currents. More than one whaler caught in the ice has disappeared in this sea never to be heard of again. De Long's Jeannette in 1881 and Bartlett's Karluk, the latter destined in 1914 to explore this sea as part of the Stefansson expedition, both drifted there is space for large islands to be hidden in this unknown sea. What is the likelihood of land existing there ? On the whole verj' little. The few soundings taken north of Bering Strait and Alaska are in favour of a narrow continental shelf and a sea floor falling rapidly to the great depths of the Arctic Ocean, al- though west of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago the evidence is less conclusive. Evidence deduced from the drift of the pack-ice and the course of the tides is also opposed to the existence of land in this area. Keenan Land, vaguely reported from whaling sources in the seventies of last century, was practically disproved by Storkersen's sledge journey from the coast of Alaska to lat. 73° 58' N., long. 147° 50' W. in 1918, and Crocker
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