142 



DYNAMIC METEOROLOGY AND HYDROGRAPHY. 



Norwegian coast or in the Baltic, therefore, tell us rather that the sea's surface is 

 higher here than in the open sea. But to what degree this may be the case can not 

 be decided merely from the hydrostatic treatment of sea-soundings. The topog- 

 raphy represented by the charts is otherwise a complicated one, showing maxima 

 and minima of distance from the physical sea-level. As a rule there is an increas- 

 ing distance between physical sea-level and the different isobaric surfaces as we 

 proceed from east to west in the Norwegian Sea, and more especially so as we 



\ 



Fig. 29. Hydrographic stations, May, 1904. 



continue into the Baltic. In general, the distances are greater along the coasts 

 than in the open sea, but even there both maxima and minima are found, in some 

 cases side by side in a most striking manner. It is important to observe also that, 

 as we proceed downward, the continuity of the isobaric surfaces is soon broken. 

 Only the io-decibar surface stretches continuously from the Atlantic into the Baltic. 

 Already the 20-decibar surface is broken in the Belts, and for greater depths the 

 Atlantic and the Baltic belong to different systems hydrostatically. As we proceed 



