551.47(98) 48 [July 



VI 



Note on the Warm Undercurrent in the Arctic Ocean 

 between Greenland and Spitzbergen 



[In our review of Nansen's " Farthest North " (Natural Science, vol. x. p. 270, 

 April 1897) we took occasion to remark that the author's recognition of com- 

 paratively warm water beneath the cold surface of the Arctic Ocean was no 

 ' surprising ' discovery, but merely confirmed " the observations of Scoresby, 

 Markham, and Maury, and the views of Lyell, Croll, and other people not 

 unknown." We now have the pleasure of further illustrating this point by 

 publishing the following observations, with which we have been favoured by 

 Mr Leigh Smith. They were written in 1875, but have not hitherto been 

 printed. — Edit. Nat. Sci.] 



THE following table of deep-sea temperatures observed (with a 

 Miller-Casella thermometer) on board the Samson in 18*71-72, 

 seems to me to establish Maury's theory of a warm undercurrent 

 running into the Arctic Basin between Greenland and Spitzbergen. 

 I cannot find an account of the temperatures taken by me on board 

 the Diana in 1873, but they confirmed previous results. 



Table of Deep-Sea Temperatures taken in 1871-72 on Board the Samsox. 



T , T Surface Depth, m 



Lat - Lon S- temp. fathoms. Tera P- 



81 o, 20' 18°'0'E 33 300 42-5 



80-10 6-55E 34-5 600 39 



80-1 6-36E 34 50 37 



40 

 78-34 8-8 E 37 600* 33"5 



77-16 4-38E 34-5 25 32 



39 "5 

 76-36 2-14E 31 150 39"5 



76-21 0-21E 36 150 39-5 



>> 



i'3< 

 i-2J 



76-20 0-21E 31 200 39"5 



76-20 0-54E 33 50 40 



48-5 

 30 12-55E 40-5 100 34-5 



33-5 

 75-0 13-15E 41-5 100 34 



42 '5 

 32-5 30 34 



35-5 

 73-27 20-21E 38 100f 35 



44 



* After this sounding was taken the thermometer ought to have been lowered to 

 250 fathoms, as it is probable that there might have been warm water that the ther- 

 mometer passed through too quickly to register. 



t South of Bear Island. Warm current going east. 



