HYDROGRAPHICAL SURVEY. — CURRENTS. 211 



Gravity, &c. of Sea-water, it will be seen, that, iu 

 some instances, even among ice, the temperature of 

 the sea at the surface, has been as high as 36° or 38^, 

 when that of the air has been several degrees below 

 freezing. This circumstance, however, has chiefly 

 occurred near tlie meridians of 6' to 12" east ; and 

 we find, from observation, that the sea freezes less 

 in these longitudes than in any other part of the 

 Spitzbergen Sea. 



Within the Arctic Circle, from the north-eastern 

 point of Russia to the coasts of Greenland and La- 

 brador, the prevailing current at the surface, is from 

 east to west, from north-east to south-west, or from 

 north to south. 



In Behring's Strait, between East Cape and Cape 

 Prince of Wales, (it has been before observed,) 

 Lieutenant Kotzebuc, the Russian navigator, found 

 a current setting strongly to the north-east, with a 

 velocity, as he thought, of two miles and a half an 

 hour, which is more than double the velocity of the 

 current observed by Captain Cook*. Along the 

 northern face of Russia, the current is decidedly 

 from the east towards the west, following the line 

 of the coast f . After passing Nova Zembla, it sets 

 westerly to Spitzbergen, where one part proceeds 

 round Point-look-out, and along the western shore 



* Barrow's " Voyages into the Arctic Regions," p. 358. 

 t Russian Voyages, pp. 339 and 391 -—Quart. Rev. No. 36. 

 p. 443, 444. o 2 



