The New York herald., 1879-12-11

endeavOr to secure tor them the correction
and approval of the persons interviewed,
and it is odd that it was this part of our
procedure that seems to have provoked the
merriment of our Partisan critic.
Physical Discoveries OF the Arctic
Regions.
The geographical and physical discoveries
of the Swedish expedition which made the
northeast passage have not yet been pub
lished. but dispatches from Mr.. Oscar Dick
son, of Gothenberg, and letters of Nor
denskj6ld's officers, very recently pub
lished, give some highly important results
of their Arctic observations during the
, past winter. From their winter harbor,
about 67 degrees north and 173 degrees
west, at the northern extremity of Behring
Strait, they ascertained that the land forms
an extensive rolling plain, with mountain
cham in the interior of the Tchkutch Pc
ninsula. The southerly and southeasterly
winds which reached the Vega, although
originally coming from the Pacific and there
| fore moist, were robbed of their moisture in
passing over the mountain heights, arriving
on the Arctic shore dry and warm; and the
| explorers say that the SUBMITS of the
| Tchkutch chain give to the winds
| ties of "the f6hn." The f0hn, or
ssnow melter," rs the Swiss call it, is the
we'll known south wind from the Mediter-
ranean. which. as it asoends the Alps, be-
comes intensely chilled by expansion, is
condensed in its descent of the northern
side Of these mountains, and, even in win
ter, is at high temperature when it touches
| the plains. The existence of Siberian
f0hn is something new. But, in o geo.
graphical point Of view, its interest is in
creased when we connect with it another
fact mentioned by the Swedes. While the
warmest winds that reached their winter
harbor descended from the icy SUBMITS of
the Tchkutch Mountains "the coldest
winds came from the southwest and west;
that is to say. from the Siberian plain"
These data will enable geographers to
make a pretty accurate definition Of the
'.great Siberian plain" on its northeastern
angle, and to approximately determine its
climatic influence on the northwestern
coasts of America. The great northern levels
of Asia forming this expansive plain are not
far from three million square miles, within
which lies, perhaps, the chief refrigerator
of the Northern Hemisphere. Nordens-
kj0ld's officers say that "the coldest winds"
of the abnormally cold winter they spent
on the shores of the Polar Ocean scame" !"
not from the direction of the Pole ITSELF
but from "the Siberian plain" They ex-
perienced, indeed, long continued north
erly or polar winds, but none 50 severe as
those from the great Asiatic refrigerator.
Looking poleward in favorable weather
they could see far out over the
sea, 'almost constantly, a blue water
sky from true northwest to east"
from which Nordenskjold infers that $50
called polynias or open places probably
occur here all the year round" This is all
the more remarkable from the fact that ''the
wind direction during the winter was
almost constantly between northwest and
north-northwest," or from poleward point.
The observations as reported all agree in
showing that the chief thermometric de-
pressions or "cold waves" that swept over
the ice-bound Vega, as her scientific corps
were watching out the long polar night
emanated from the vast interior level of the
Asian contin ent, while the prevailing winds
from the for north were not sufficiently
cold to seal up the ocean water beyond
them. 1t seems highly probable, from these
observations, that the original source
whence come the ''polar waves" that de-
scend on our Pacific coast and move over
the United States every winter is not the
north polar area, but the great Siberian
plain. The absence of such continental
refrigerator near the western coast of
Europe may help to explain its comparative
exemption from these "waves,' which has
heretofore been attributed to Gulf Stream
agencies.
The Swedish officers state that even when
the sky was clear there went on "a con-
slant snow storm" a few inches above the
ground, carrying an immense mass of
water in q frozen state over the north coast
of Siberia to more southerly regions" play
ing a sufficiently important part, in a cli-
matte respect, ''as a carrier of cold, to de-
serve the attention of meteorologists.
Whatever may hereafter be found to be the
commercial value Of the northeast passage
it is evident that the physical research es
made by the Swedish explorers will prove
of greater importance in. the elucidation
| of the great problems Of terrestrial physics.