BROWN, ON DISCOLORATION OF THE ARCTIC SEAS. 241 



viousl}^ so that I consider that I am justified in bringing my 

 researches, so far as they have gone, before the Botanical 

 Society. 



1 . Appearance and Geographical Distribvtion of the Dis- 

 coloured Portions of the Arctic Sea. — The colour of the Green- 

 land Sea varies i'rom ultramarine blue to olive-green, and 

 from the most pure transparency to striking opacity, and 

 these changes are not transitory, but permanent.^ Scoresby, 

 Avho sailed during his whaling voyages very extensively over 

 the Arctic Sea, considered that in the " Greenland Sea " of 

 the Dutch— the " Okl Greenland " of the English— this dis- 

 coloured water formed perhaps one fourth jjart of the surface 

 between the parallels of 74° and 80° north latitude. It is 

 liable, he remarked, to alterations in its position from the 

 action of the current, but still it is always renewed near 

 certain localities year after year. Often it constitutes long 

 bands or streams lying north and south, or north-east and 

 south-west, but of very variable dimensions. " Sometimes I 

 have seen it extend two or three degrees of latitude in length, 

 and from a few miles to ten or fifteen leagues in breadth. It 

 occurs very commonly about the meridian of London in high 

 latitudes. In the year 1817 the sea was found to be of a 

 blue colour and transparent all the way from 12° east, in the 

 parallel of 74° or 75° north-east, to the longitude of 0° 12' 

 east in the same parallel. It then became green and less 

 transparent; the colour was nearly grass green, with a shade 

 of black. Sometimes the transition between the green and 

 blue waters is progressive, passing through the intermediate 

 in the space of three or four leagues ; at others it is so sudden 

 that the line of sej^aration is seen like the rippling of a 

 current ; and the two qualities of the water keep apparently 

 as distinct as the waters of a large muddy river on first enter- 

 ing the sea."t In Davis' Straits and Baffin's Bay, wherever 

 the Avhalers have gone, the same description may hold true 

 — of course making allowances for the differences of geo- 

 graphical position, and the discoloured patches varying in 

 size and locality. I have often observed the vessel in the 

 space of a few hours, or even in shorter periods of time, sail 

 through alternate patches of deep black, green, and cserulean 

 blue ; and at other times, especially in the upper reaches of 

 Davis' Straits and Baffin's Bay, it has ploughed its way for 

 fifty or even a hundred miles through an almost uninter- 

 rupted space of the former colour. The opacity of the water 



* Scoresby, 'Arctic Regions,' vol. i, p. ]75. 

 t Ibid , p. 176. 



