The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1883-11-30
THE IOE-B0UND KARA SEA.
Baron Moro r.skjolds Theories Oontrover-
ted by Varna Survivor.

The loss of the Dutch steamer Varna,
which was noted in these columns some
time since in a telegram from Vardoe,
in Lapland, that miserable little fishing
village on the shores of the Arctic
ocean which was first to extend the
great hospitality of its limited civiliza-
ton TO such famous ice sailors as Wey-
precht and Payer, Leigh Smith and
Nielsen, was the demonstration of
theory held by many geOgraphers
against that announcement by Baron
Nordenksjoll in his famous book re-
counting the passage of the Vega from
the Atlantic around the top of Europe
and Asia to the Pacific. In his book
the baron declares that the passage
was undertaken for the purpose of PROV
ing or denying theory he long held,
to the effect that there existed along
the shore of the Arctic an open or ice
free channel, through which, with Or
binary caution, strong ship might
make way any year when the previous
winter bad not been of exceptional
severity. The baron's success for
time silenced the critics, but the loss of
the Varna and the imprisonment of the
Dijmphna, with the expedition of Lieut..
Hovgaard on board, near the site of
this disaster has again stimulated their
activity. When the Nordenskjold ex-
petition returned many of the geograph-
zeal Swans declared that the Vega ex-
petition had found u peculiarly FORUM
ate condition OF affairs in the Arctic,
and that in one hundred years such
another trip would in all probability be
impossible. The baron responded that
the way as far as Port Dickson, on the
mouth of the Yenesci, and, in fact, as
far as Cape Chelyuskin, was always
open in summer. So when the Dutch
government sent out its meteorological
expedition to complete the information
al chain of circumpolar stations, it
opened communication with Baron
Nordenskiold. who was at the time
busy preparing the Sophia for the
Greenland trip which he has just sue
cessfully concluded. 1t stated, as the
baron has already informed, that it in
tended to send corps of observers to
Port Dickson, and asked him if, in his
opinion, il would be safe to send it via
the Kara sea instead of through Russia
and down the Ycncsei. He responded
so Mr.. Bust, one of tho survivors OF
the Varna wreck. says-that the Kara
sea was always navigablc in summer
time. This answer, Mr.. Rust continues,
settled the question, and the expedition
was sent, with what result has already
been told.
The efforts of the Varna to enter the
Kara sea, however, have not yet been
heard of on this side of the Atlantic,
but Mr.. Rust gives them very graphical
ly. He says that according to instruc-
tons the first attempt to reach the Kara
sea was made through the Kara gate,
but it was found to be so chOked with
ice that the effort was abandoned and
the Varna made north on the west side
of Novaya Zemlya as far as Matoschkin
shar, and endeavored to make into the
sea through that strait. 1t was found
to be blocked full Of ice, and the ship
was put south again. Again the Strait
of Kara was found to be blocked with
ice, the prevailing wind being from the
westward. When Nordenskjold went
through, and when previous and subse-
quent navigators found their way from
the westward through the Kara gate,
the wind had been from the eastward
for long time. The prevailing winds
here are from the westward, and when
the wind is in this point the ice banks
upon the east shore of the Novaya Zem-
Iva, finding here lee, and with moth
ing TO force it out through the Matosch-
kin shar or the Kara strait ii remains
there in u jam to the perfect impede
ment OF navigation.
The currents here are very eccentric.
An arm of the gulf stream-that Is, a
dynamic arm of that stream-sweeps
through the Kara strait into the Kara
sea, where il is met by the flow of the
Obi and Ycnesci rivers, and these, strik-
ing the lttoral current made by the
gulf stream at an angle, defect it of
shore. and by further contact with the
current running from the eastward
around Cape Chelyuskin whirlpool
motion is induced, of which the Kara
sea is the theater. This being the case,
all the ice in the sea which gets out is
wind-drivcn, and when the wind is from
the west il remains in the sea, and from
| the east it finds its way out through
the shar and the gate. In the opinion
of Mr.. Rust, getting through either OF
these passages into the Kara sea is
purely q. matter of luck, dependent
upon the prevailing winds, and Port
Dickson as an annually attainable place
is failure. One might be able for
three years, hand running TO reach IL,
and for the next twenty years it might
| 1T. IL