Lawrence Island, and closely follows the coast on the
Alaskan side, while a cold current comes out south, past East Cape
in Siberia, skirting the Asiatic shore past Kamschatka, and thence
continues down the coast of China. He said ice often extended several
miles seaward, from East Cape on the Asiatic side of Behring Strait,
making what seamen call a false cape, and indicating cold water, while
no such formation makes off on the American side, where the water is
12 degrees warmer than on the Asiatic shore off the Diomede islands,
situated in the middle of Behring's Strait, the current varies in
intensity according to the wind.
Frequently it is almost nothing for several days, when after a series of
southerly winds the shallow Arctic basin has been filled, under a heavy
pressure, with an unusual volume of water, and a sudden change to
northerly winds, makes even a small current setting southward for a few
days, just as at times the surface currents set out our Golden Gate
continuously for 24 and 48 hours, as shown by the United States Coast
Survey tide gauges. Whalers report that the incoming water then flows
in, under the temporary outflowing stream.
Old trees, of a variety known to grow in tropical Japan, are floated
into the Arctic basin as far as past Point Barrow, on the American side,
but none are found on the Asiatic side, or near Wrangell Land, where a
cold stream exists, and ice remains late in the season.
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