depression, clouds were of a type associated with anticyclonic conditions. Surface clouds were seen to be blown radially and at high velocity from off the higher parts of the dome. Altostratus, in various forms, and cirrocumulus were typical, and on occasions well-developed föhn clouds were seen over Hinlopen Strait. Cirrus was noted and appeared to indicate an influx of upper air over the dome. Temperature and Wind. There is no evidence that the outwardflowing winds were caused by local changes of temperature, as between land and sea. Wind. Appeared to be directly and intimately connected with pressure conditions (as above). The system was upset by the depression from the south-west, which at its lowest point brought numbers of flies to the interior of North-East Land from the forest belt of Northern Europe (at least 800 miles). A prolonged blizzard followed the passing of the depression, with the return of " anticyclonic" conditions; in three widely separated places of observation the blizzard was experienced from different directions (gravitational in each case), ceasing abruptly and synchronously, after a long rise of barometer. On the coastal border the winds were more variable. Effect of Climate. - In the summer of 1924 excessive melting, especially with the south-west winds, removed snow and even ice to an impressive degree; even the higher parts of the interior were affected, but elsewhere the surface became very dilapidated, and multitudes of old crevasses were also opened up and enlarged. The outward-flowing blizzards conveyed enormous quantities of snow to the bordering zone of ice, and by depositing it, as well as by direct abrasion, quickly effaced the traces of melting, whilst the higher parts of the interior were torn and strongly abraded. The summer season appeared to be short. Conclusions. A fixed anticyclone does not exist, but, though the oscillations of pressure agree with those of places as far distant as Liefde Bay on the north coast of Spitsbergen, there is a definite tendency towards the establishment of anticyclonic conditions with radial gravitational winds. There appears to be a type of "intermittent glacial anticyclone," which establishes itself, is blotted out by interference from outside the area, and quickly re-establishes itself again. Winds are most markedly outward-flowing, and lead to a definite augmentation of the bordering ice at the expense of the higher parts of the interior. There is some indication of a pulsation, from calm to blizzard. In summer the effect of this type of "anticyclone" is very marked, and it is a factor of real importance in the control of the supply of the cap of ice. Melting, which is especially associated with interference from outside is excessive and leads to a depletion of the bordering zone (removing much of the snow brought from the interior) and, to a less extent, of the higher parts of the interior. Considering the Arctic Basin as a whole, the essential difference between its meteorological conditions and those of the Antarctic Continent is most strongly marked. The latter we know to support a great glacial anticyclone affecting the whole continent and the neighbouring seas far and wide. In the Arctic, Greenland, we know, supports a similar system. The Polar Basin does not (so far as I can judge), nor have I any evidence that such conditions exist in the Canadian Arctic or on the Siberian coasts (which are not "glacierized" (5, p. 11)). The distribution of land and land-ice in Franz Josef Land probably does not lead to a local glacial anticylcone, but in the Spitsbergen archipelago we now have North-East Land supporting its "intermittent glacial anticyclone." In the writer's opinion New Friesland may have a similar but modified system, but in the rest of the archipelago there is, at the moment, evidence only of the usual föhn winds of the glaciers, with a possible tendency to high pressure. The work done in North-East Land by the sledging parties of 1924 therefore has more than a local value.* Acknowledgments. The author is indebted to Professor W. J. Sollas, F.R.S., for his interest and help in the preparation of this paper, and wishes to express his thanks to Mr. H. O. Beckit, as also to Mr. W. G. Kendrew, for reading the original manuscript and for welcome advice and criticism. In the production of the paper in its present form in the Fournal, the author's thanks are due to Mr. A. R. Hinks, F.R.S., and Mr. L. C. W. Bonacina. I. REFERENCES IN THE TEXT i. R. A. FRAZER and E. RELF: "Central Spitsbergen and NorthEast Land," Geogr. Fourn., vol. 64, 1924, pp. 193 et seq. (Discovery of tent-bag, see p. 207.) ، ii. See also R. N. RUDMOSE BROWN: Spitsbergen,' chap. xxv. pp. 268 et seq. Seeley, Service. 1920. iii. and F. NANSEN: 'Through Siberia,' pp. 8 et seq. Heinemann, London. 1914. 2. GERARD DE GEER: 'Miss. Suédoise. Mesure d'un Arc de Méridien au Spitzberg,' t. ii. S. IX. (Published Stockholm, 1923.) 3. See 1, i. and R. A. FRAZER : "The Topographical Work of the Oxford University Expedition to Spitsbergen (1921)," Geogr. Fourn., vol. 60, 1922, pp. 321 et seq. 4. F. G. BINNEY: "The Oxford University Arctic Expedition (1924)," * While reading the proofs of this paper I have been presented by Prof. W. H. Hobbs with a copy of his Monograph on Glacial Anticyclones (Macmillan, New York, 1926), in which he cites evidence (p. 162) of radial winds in Novaya Zemblya and Ellesmere Land. Geogr. Fourn., vol. 66 (July), pp. 9 et seq., and appendix by F. Tymms, ibid. (August). 5. C. S. WRIGHT and R. E. PRIESTLEY: 'British Terra Nova Antarctic Expedition, 1910-1913, Glaciology, chap. ii. pp. 134 et seq. Harrison, London. 1922. As applied to Spitsbergen, see J. M. WORDIE : Present-Day Conditions in Spitsbergen," Geogr. Fourn., vol. 58, 1921, p. 25. 6. The following are a few references to the subject: * i. F. NANSEN: 'The First Crossing of Greenland, vol. 2, Appendix IV., pp. 480 et seq., and especially p. 496. Longmans, Green, London. 1890. ii. R. E. PEARY: "Journeys in North Greenland," Geogr. Fourn., vol. 11, 1898, p. 233. iii. A. WEGENER: "Meteorologische Terminbeobachtungen an Denmarks-Haven," Med. An. Grønland, vol. 42, 1911, pp. 124-355 iv. W. BRAND and A. WEGENER: "Meteorologische Beobachtungen vii. C. S. WRIGHT and R. E. PRIESTLEY: Ibid., pp. 8 et seq.; and 7. W. Н. НOBBS: "Les Glaciers du Monde actuel," Revue de Géographie Alpine, vol. 10, 1922, pp. 83 et seq. 8. A. E. NORDENSKIÖLD: 'Arctic Voyages,' pp. 219 et seq.. Macmillan, London. 1879. 9. C. S. ELTON: "The Dispersal of Insects to Spitsbergen," Trans. Ent. Soc. (London, 1925), pp. 289-299. 10. 'Observations météorologiques (1882, 1896, 1901) Mesure d'un Arc de Méridien au Spitzberg,' t. 2, S. VIII. B. V. (published Stockholm, 1904). 11. A. WEGENER: Med. om Grønland, vol. 42, 1909, p. 66; ibid., 1912, pp. 308, 309, and Plates XVI., XVII. Note I. NOTES BY AUTHOR At the moment of going to press there has been published 'Scott's Polar Journey and the Weather,' being the Halley Lecture of 1923 by G. C. Simpson, F.R.S., published by the Oxford University Press, 1926. In this valuable paper I noted the following, in particular, with regard to temperatures during blizzards. It will be remembered that I have stated that during blizzards in North-East Land the temperature was lower than at other times, in contrast to the generally accepted views to the contrary. Simpson differentiates the Antarctic blizzards into those of winter and those of summer: during the former there certainly was a most remarkable rise of temperature from the terrible degree of cold otherwise obtaining. Of the latter we read (loc. cit., pp. 16, 17): "During the summer the cold layer cannot form near the ground, * See note on previous page. for the sun warms up the ground, which warms up the air. The warm air rises and a cold layer cannot form. . . . There is no surface layer. When the wind blows from the north-west the temperature rises, and when the blizzard from the south sets in just after midday on the 15th the temperature falls rapidly, and during the blizzard the temperature is ten degrees lower than it was during the calm interval before the wind commenced to blow." The experience of the sledgers in North-East Land thus finds confirmation, although of course the temperature of the Antarctic summer, in calm or in blizzard, is far below any degree of cold we experienced. Note II. The foregoing pages were completed nearly a year ago, and have been delayed owing to my absence abroad: at that time a discussion on the Polar Front and allied problems, to which Mr. Bonacina refers, had not come into prominence, and I do not propose at this date to make any alteration in the paper on account of it. NOTE BY MR. L. C. W. BONACINA: The evidence given in the paper of a “glacial anticyclone" on a small scale similar in operation to what is observed on a large scale in Greenland and Antarctica is a further exemplification of a type of local circulation that is becoming recognized as a principle in physical geography and climatology. It independently supports, too, and amplifies certain conclusions that had been drawn from observations at the German Observatory in Spitsbergen, 1911 and 1912, to the effect that this, as well as other Arctic archipelagos, commands a local system of high barometric pressure. The outflowing gravitational winds down the flanks of ice domes belong to the class of "katabatic" winds, being substantially of the same type as may be observed in mountain valleys at night or in winter. The relatively high barometric pressure over the icedomes, however, is only a shallow surface temperature effect, and for this reason the term "anticyclone" should be used with some reservation since glacial anticyclones have little in common with ordinary anti- or contra-cyclones, which are large, deep systems drifting about in the general circulation without any such close relation to local surface conditions. The distinction should be observed with reference to the statement in the author's concluding paragraph that the North Polar Basin supports no anticyclonic system. The fact is, as established by the late Professor H. Mohn from the results of the Fram Expedition of 1893-96, that on the average the North Polar Basin does support an anticyclonic ridge of relatively high pressure-a wind-divide "—which nowadays one recognizes as helping to maintain supplies of cold dry air which, drifting southwards, interacts with supplies of warm humid equatorial air to form cyclones along the so-called Polar Front. But this Arctic high-pressure axis, like the Greenland and Antarctic glacial anticyclones, must be a purely superficial temperature effect of the ocean ice-cap; for, as Dr. Harold Jeffreys has lately demonstrated, the poles of the Earth should be the seat of low barometric pressure-and they no doubt would be so in actuality if the surface of the globe were uniform, permitting the planetary circulation to proceed undisturbed by thermal irregularities introduced by ice caps and domes (Q.J.R. Meteor. Soc., January 1926). Another matter which we think it important to focus attention upon are Mr. Sandford's observations to the effect that in the perpetual daylight of the Arctic summer the temperature tends to drop with clearing sky and contrari wise.* If the University of Oxford again sends an expedition to Spitsbergen this subject should be carefully watched, and every effort made to make sure that any accession of cold with sunshine is not due simply to a change in the air supply, or shift of wind to a colder quarter. On the other hand, since a surface of snow is such a rapid radiator of long-wave energy, and since it reflects such a large proportion of the incident solar energy, it may well be that there are certain atmospheric conditions, especially at any altitude where the air is thin, with the sun circling round the heavens at a low angle, when the snow will emit a good deal more heat than it absorbs. If this is really the case the fact is clearly a potential source of spells of cold weather, below the normal temperature, at midsummer in the neighbourhood of the North Pole, such as appear to occur in the Arctic Ocean now and then, otherwise difficult to account for in a basin surrounded by snow-free lands except Greenland. The point is thus of practical importance in forming an estimate as to what degree of summer cold-below the seasonal mean temperature, which is only slightly below freezing-point in July—an expedition to the North Pole would be likely to encounter. And as bearing vitally on this question, it is to be observed that upper-air observations, made on the Maud expedition, support theoretical expectation that a temperature inversion, that is a rise with height above the glacial surface, exists at all seasons over the polar sea; for an inversion would militate against the extent to which cold weather, locally engendered by radiation, could be transported by wind from one part of the polar basin to another, since in that case the air would be warmed by turbulent mixing. Hence another expedition to North-East Land, which appears to be an excellent experimental ground for problems in polar climate, should be well equipped for taking upper-air temperatures. THE PROblem of THE SHAKSGAM VALLEY Colonel Sir Francis Younghusband, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E. Read at the Meeting of the Society, 8 February 1926. Folding Map follows p. 288. HE title of my address this evening is "The Problem of the Shaksgam Valley"; but probably not a dozen persons here know where Shaksgam is. And little wonder; for it is a remote uninhabited valley at the back of the Karakoram Himalaya, and has been visited by only two Europeans, and by them thirty-seven years ago. It was discovered by me in 1887 on my journey from Peking to India; and it was again visited, first by me and then by the Russian (or rather Polish) traveller, Captain Grombchevski, in 1889.† Since then no European traveller, * The Fram results (1893–96) indicate a slight excess of mean daily temperature with clear sky in comparison with overcast sky in July and August, a deficit in May and June, and a very marked deficit in winter. †The name of this distinguished Polish soldier in Russian service has suffered in successive transliterations. The Polish name, as we are informed by the Secretary of the Polish Legation in London, is GRABCZEWSKI. When turned into Russian it acquired an M before the B, as pronounced, and being thence re-transliterated under a French influence, becomes GROMBTCHEVSKY very commonly in geographical Q |