Black Seas.

Between Port Dickson and White Island, there runs therefore a strong
fresh-water current, at first in a northerly direction. The
influence which the rotation of the earth exercises, in these high
latitudes, on streams which run approximately in the direction of
the meridian, is, however, very considerable, and gives to those
coming from the south an easterly bend. In consequence of this, the
river water of the Ohi and Yenisej must be confined as in a proper
river channel, at first along the coast of the Tajmur country, until
the current is allowed beyond Cape Chelyuskin to flow unhindered
towards the north-east or east. Near the mouths of the large rivers
I have, during calm weather in this current, in about 74 deg.
N.L., observed the temperature rising off the Yenisej to +9.4 deg.
C. (17th August, 1875), and off the Obi to +8 deg. C. (10th August
of the same year). As is usually the case, this current coming from
the south produces both a cold undercurrent, which in stormy weather
readily mixes with the surface water and cools it, and on the
surface a northerly cold ice-bestrewn counter-current, which, in
consequence of the earth's rotation, takes a bend to the west, and
which evidently runs from the opening between Cape Chelyuskin and
the northern extremity of Novaya Zemlya, towards the east side of
this island, and perhaps may be the cause why the large masses of
drift ice are pressed during summer against the east coast of Novaya
Zemlya. According to my own experience and the uniform testimony of
the walrus-hunters, _this ice melts away almost completely during
autumn_.

In order to judge of the distance at which the current coming from
the Obi and the Yenisej can drive away the drift ice, we ought to
remember that even a very weak current exerts an influence on the
position of the ice, and that, for instance, the current from the
Plata River, whose volume of water, however, is not perhaps so great
as that of the Obi and Yenisej, is still clearly perceptible at a
distance of 1,500 kilometres from the river mouth, that is to say,
about three times as far as from Port Dickson to Cape Chelyuskin.
The only bay which can be compared to the Kara Sea in respect of the
area, which is intersected by the rivers running into it, is the
Gulf of Mexico.[9] The river currents from this bay appear to
contribute greatly to the Gulf Stream.

The winds which, during the autumn months, often blow in these
regions fro