OF THE NORWEGIAX FISHERIES: A REVIEW. 



61 



he is careful to state that his investigations are insufficient to determine 

 the relative amounts of bank water due to local mixture and to trans- 

 ference from other parts. He points out, however, that the time when 

 the bank water thickens (autumn) is coincident with the period of 

 heavy westerly gales, which may be presumed to assist in forming the 

 mixture, as well as to drive it onwards towards the coast. 



Probable as this explanation may at first appear, it must be pointed 

 out that the difference in the amount of bank water present off the 

 west coast during the winter seasons of 1893-4 and 1894-5 lends 

 no apparent support to the view. The former winter was excessively 

 stormy, owing to the prevalence of westerly gales, yet the thickness 

 of the layer of bank water did not attain an average of 60 metres. 

 On the other hand, the latter winter was calm, without westerly gales, 

 but with occasional south-east storms, and the thickness of the layer of 

 bank water exceeded the high average of 90 metres, thus : — 



Hjort further states (p. 24) that the bank water in November, 1894, 

 was " of far less thickness " than in the same month of 1893. Never- 

 theless, I do not find in his charts or tables any substantiation of this 

 statement, for, as will be gathered from the subjoined figures taken from 

 his data, the average thickness of the bank water was identical in the 

 two periods under comparison : — 



The thick winter layer of bank water begins to be dissipated in 

 spring about the month of April, synchronously with the reappearance 

 of the Baltic current. According to Hjort, tiie disappearance of the 



