IC10 is the nearest starburst galaxy , as revealed both by its H \alpha surface brightness and the large number of Wolf-Rayet stars ( WRs ) per unit area .
The relative number of known WC- to WN-type WRs has been thought to be unusually high ( \sim 2 ) , unexpected for IC10 ’ s metallicity .
In this Letter we report the first results of a new and deeper survey for WRs in IC10 .
We sucessfully detected all of the spectroscopically known WRs , and based upon comparisons with a neighboring control field , estimate that the total number of WRs in IC10 is about 100 .
We present spectroscopic confirmation of two of our WR candidates , both of which are of WN type .
Our photometric survey predicts that the actual WC/WN ratio is \sim 0.3 .
This makes the WC/WN ratio of IC 10 consistent with that expected for its metallicity , but greatly increases the already unusually high number of WRs , resulting in a surface density that is about 20 times higher than in the LMC .
If the majority of these candidates are spectroscopically confirmed , IC10 must have an exceptional population of high mass stars .