The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1914-10-03


details of Arctic tides il i
normally OF modest range and vet in some ror+e
tne rise ana fall is considerably less than it
~ D0 II the water were free to circulate from
snore 10 snore or from side to side of the Arctic
basin. Indeed, so we are told nv r A Harris of
the United States coast and geodetic survey cat
Bennett island at Teplitz bay Franz Josef land
Tue range OF the d1urnal wave has about one-haIf
OF the magnitude which the tidal forces acting
over an uninterrupted Arctic basin would nro-
ouce- In other words, the normal or theoretical
now is somehow impeded, and the question is,
What is the nature and the extent of this OBJ
struct1on or series of tidal checks?
1.-THE semfdaily tides found in the Arctic ocean
are derived almost entirely from those of the
North Atlantic, because the semi-daily forces van
ish at the pole and are very small in the higher
ATTITUDES" Mr.. Harris continues ct is a case
of getting near the hub of wheel These tides
enter the Arctic proper by way of the
strait lying between Spitzbergen and the eastern
coast OF northern Greenland. They are propa-
gated through the Arctic to the New Siberian
islands, the average rise and fall at Bennett is
land being 2.5 feet
Now upon the assumption of an uninterrupted
Arctic basin the tides at Point Barrow and at
F1axman island could not differ greatly in size
from the tides which would upon the same as
sumption, be found at Bennett island. But as a
matter of fact the rise and fall of the semi-daily
tide is O.4 foot at Point Barrow and 0.5 at Flax
island"
But the presence of an obstruction, assuming
the water for the tidal movement to come, as Mr..
Harris says, from the Atlantic ocean via the
passage between the northeastern coast of Green
land and Sptzbergen, is further evidenced by the
directions in which the ebb and the food tides
flow. If no barrier existed to the free movement
of the flood from east to west then the ebb would
east to the outlet between the two points
mentioned. In short. it would leave by the short
est route to the original point of entry into the
Arctic basin.
Other records are available that help to bear
out Mr.. Harris argument in favor of a vast IN
charted continent extended group of big is
lands of which Croker land is but part In
September. 1879, the Arctic exploring craft Jean
nette was caught by the ice and frozen in near
Wrangel island, where the Karluk's men are now
maTooned. She carried by the ebb tide along
with the ice to the westward until she sank on
June II, 1881, to the northeast of Bennett island
Again. Nansen's Fran was frozen in to the
eastward of Bennett island, on September %,
1898 and after drifting generally westward got
clear on July 49, 1896, at point nearly due north
of Spitzbergen. Now let see what happened to
the Karluk
On October 6. last year. Stefansson's ship was
swept from her anchorage by gale and carried
of shore at point northeast Of Barter island
near Manning point. There she caught by
the Arctic pack, from which it was impossible to
break her loose, and thence she. too. drifted to
the westward-always westward-until crushed
and sent the bottom north Of Wrangel island