The waters surrounding the North Pole bear the general designation of the Arctic Ocean. But here again it is almost impossible to particularize any uniform limit southward. It joins the Pacific at Behring Strait in about lat. 66° N., and consequently in this quarter extends fully half a degree _beyond_ the Arctic Circle. At Scoresby Sound, as at North Cape, where it meets the Atlantic, it is intersected by the parallel of 71°, and consequently falls short of the Arctic Circle by about 4° 30’. In the Old World, the Polar Ocean, if we include its gulfs, extends, in the White Sea, fully two degrees _beyond_ the Arctic Circle; while at Cape Severo, the northernmost point of Asia, in lat. 78° 25’ N., it is 11° 55’ distance from it. Finally, in the New World it is everywhere confined _within_ the Circle; as much as 5° at Point Barrow, about 7° 30’ at Barrow Strait, and about 3° at the Hecla and Fury Strait. We may add that, so far as temperature is concerned, the great gulfs known, in memory of their discoverers, as Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, and Hudson Bay, are portions of the Arctic Ocean. Of the more southerly area of this great ocean, the only section which has been adequately explored to a distance from the continent, and in the direction of the Pole, is that which washes the north-east of America. Here we meet, under the collective name of the Polar Archipelago, with the following islands:--Banks Land, Wollaston Land, Prince Albert Land, Victoria Land, Prince Patrick Island, Princess Royal Islands, Melville Island, Cornwallis Island, North Devon, Beechey Island, Grinnell Land, and North Lincoln. Further to the east lie Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen Island, Novaia Zemlaia, New Siberia, and the Liakhov Islands. The chief straits and inlets are Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, Smith Sound, Regent Inlet, Hecla and Fury Strait, Wellington Channel, and Cumberland Sound; while further westward are Belcher Channel, Melville Sound, M’Clintock Channel, Banks Strait, and Prince of Wales Strait. The Arctic Lands comprehend two well-defined sections, or zones; that of the forests, and the treeless wastes. To the latter belong the islands within the Arctic Circle, and also a considerable tract of the northern continents, forming the “barrens” of North America, and the “tundras” and “steppes” of European Russia and Siberia. The treeless character of this vast area of wilderness is owing to the bleak sea-winds which drive, without let or hindrance, across the islands and level shores of the Polar Ocean, compelling even the most vigorous plant to bend before them and creep along the ground.