The opportunities for observation were afforded by the voyage and subsequent drift of the S.Y. Endurance. During December 1914 and January 1915 for a period of six weeks she successfully bored her way through pack-ice of every description—drift-ice, open-pack, and very frequently even close-pack. Continually fighting, she penetrated from 59° to 72° S. lat., and finally reached the land water off Coats Land on the latter parallel. As the crow flies, therefore, she was navigated through ice for nearly 800 geographical miles on this voyage; her actual course among the ice-fields and floes was computed to exceed 2000 miles, an achievement without parallel in the Antarctic. The principle adopted was to keep to the east, where presumably there is less pack than in the west; if the Endurance experience is a normal one, however, the meridian of 20° W. long., which was followed, is certainly not far enough east.
Jan Mayen, so far as at present known, is entirely volcanic in origin. The rocks, therefore, are conveniently grouped with the Tertiary and later volcanics of the Faroes, Iceland, and Scoresby Sound in East Greenland. It should be noted, however, that these three localities are linked together by the Faroe-Iceland Ridge, the water everywhere being shallower than 500 fathoms. Jan Mayen, on the other hand, though lying at the same distance from Iceland as the Faroes, is not on the Ridge, and is separated by depths of over 1000 fathoms. Its position is somewhat to the west of the centre of the Norwegian Sea, and at no great distance from depths exceeding 2000 fathoms.
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