60 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



water, which on the southeast is encompassed by the warm 

 waters of the Gulf Stream, and penetrates below its current 

 to the coast of Europe. The principal discharge of the polar 

 ocean takes place into the lower strata of the Atlantic, 

 through the deep channel between Greenland and Iceland ; 

 while the shallow sea between Iceland and the Faroes hinders 

 any further outflow, which is only permitted through the nar- 

 row lower portion of the Faroe-Shetland channel. The banks 

 around the British Islands (the shallow North Sea and the 

 Norwegian banks) prevent any other outflow southward ; 

 and those between the Bear Islands and Norway answer tho 

 same purpose to the east. On the other hand, an immense 

 mass of warm water extends from the deep abyss of the At- 

 lantic northward over the shallow sea between Iceland and 

 the Faroe Islands, as also above the Faroe-Shetland channel. 

 Thence some part of the current passes the Norwegian coast 

 and continues in two different arms, the narrower but deeper 

 reaching to the north coast of Spitzbergen, while the second 

 and broader arm expands over the entire sea of Nova Zembla. 



The left bank and bottom of the Gulf Stream are formed 

 by the ice-cold water of the Arctic Ocean ; the right side, 

 however, consists of the bottom of the North Sea and the 

 banks connected with it, as also of the Norwegian coast to 

 the Russian boundary. The Gulf Stream is warmest on the 

 surface layer quite close to the coast of Norway (in the sum- 

 mer, of course), and from this point the strata exhibit a sen- 

 sibly decreasing temperature with the increasing depth, until 

 we reach the stratum of the freezing-point. 



Deep-sea observations in several of the Norwegian fiords, 

 which are protected by their outlying banks from the great 

 Atlantic depths, show that their water comes from the Gulf 

 Stream, and they appear to be filled with this water to the 

 very bottom, even when this lies lower than the ice-cold bed 

 of the Gulf Stream off the coast. Thus the West Fiord, at a 

 depth of from 100 to 320 fathoms, showed a uniform temper- 

 ature of 44.6 Fahr. in the summer of 1868, while outside of 

 the Loffbdens the observations of the Noma in July, 1871, 

 at 35 fathoms, revealed a temperature of 44.6 Fahr., and at 

 215 fathoms of 39.2. To the southwest of Lindesnes and Li- 

 ster, in June to August, 1871, at 150 to 250 fathoms, the tem- 

 perature registered 42.8 to 44.6, while in the Faroe-Shetland 



