RECENT HYDROBIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 481 



is along the east coast of Greenland, but it spreads across 

 over the Icelandic-Faeroe banks. It may interfere with the 

 Norwegian Stream in the neighbourhood of the latter islands, 

 and may sometimes enter the extreme northern part of the 

 North Sea, carrying Arctic planktonic organisms into the 

 Skagerak. All along the shoals between the Faeroes and 

 Iceland the two streams interfere, causing small anti-cyclonic 

 eddies; and large cyclonic movements of surface water are 

 set up in the Norwegian Sea, and north and south of jan 

 Mayen, from the same cause. But the main drift of Atlantic 

 water — " an integral part of the Gulf Stream " — is along the 

 west coast of Norway ; and the relatively crowded position 

 of the isohalines shows how concentrated the Stream is in 

 this region. South of the Faeroe Islands the Stream sends 

 an offshoot towards Iceland, and at some times of the year 

 there may be a large volume of relatively warm Atlantic 

 water on the coasts of this island. In the neighbourhood of 

 the Lofoten Islands the Stream also splits and a branch passes 

 towards Spitzbergen, giving rise to the more northern of the 

 two cyclonic systems referred to above. The remainder of 

 the Stream passes north, rounding North Cape and entering 

 the Barentz Sea. Both in the neighbourhood of Iceland and 

 in the Barentz Sea this periodic flooding with Atlantic water 

 is of momentous consequence for the local fisheries. By the 

 time the Stream has penetrated into the remote Barentz Sea 

 the temperature of the water has fallen greatly, and it then 

 sinks, because of its greater density, and flows on as an 

 under-current. Although this Atlantic water has cooled 

 greatly its temperature is still higher than that of the Polar 

 water normally present in the Barentz Sea, and it thus happens 

 that the " summer " of the bottom water here is in November, 

 when the Atlantic flow has culminated, while the "winter" 

 of the water is in June. 



But for this remote offshoot of the Gulf Stream circulation 

 Norway, as an industrial and fishing country, would hardly 

 exist, and in its place we should have a land with a climate 

 resembling that of Greenland. The mean temperature of the 

 Lofoten Islands in January is some 25 C. higher than the 

 mean of the zone of latitude in wmich these islands are 

 situated, the greatest temperature-anomaly on the face of the 

 earth. Variations in the strength of the Gulf Stream drift in 



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