I. Introductory Remarks. 
Åtter having bought his now famous little vessel, the Gjøa, Captain 
Roald Amundsen wished to make a preparatory cruise in the Arctic 
seas, in 1901, in order to try the vessel, and to gain experience with her 
in the ice, before starting on the quest for the Magnetic North Pole and 
the North West Passage. To pay the expences of this first cruise, 
Amundsen was to catch seals in the Barents Sea, the Spitsbergen Seas, 
and the East Greenland Sea; but at the same time he was anxious to 
make use of the opportunity for scientific work; I proposed that he should 
make oceanographic observations. If carefully carried out with modern 
instruments I knew they would be of great scientific value, especially in 
the sea north of Jan Mayen, between Spitsbergen and Greenland, where 
hitherto very few trustworthy investigations have been made. If Amundsen 
should succeed in his plan of going through the ice, to the east coast of 
Greenland, he would be able to make a hydrographical section across the 
East Greenland Polar Current, which would be of the highest value, and 
would probably solve problems of importance in understanding the Physical 
Oceanography of the whole Norwegian Sea. Captain Amundsen accepted 
the proposal with enthusiasm, and he then got the following instru- 
mental equipment: 1 insulated Pettersson-Nansen Water-Bottle, 1 smaller 
water-bottle of my construction (which was not insulated but which closed 
tightly, and gave perfect water-samples), 2 Nansen Deep-Sea-Thermometers 
(from Richter, Berlin), for the insulated water-bottle, 1 Reversing Thermo- 
meter from Richter, Berlin, 2 Negretti-Zambra Reversing Thermometers, a 
few lenses for reading off the thermometers (to avoid parallax), several 
ordinary thermometers (from the meteorological Office, Christiania), a few 
Nansen closing Plankton-nets of different sizes, and several thousand bottles 
for holding the water- and plankton-samples. Captain Amundsen had a 
very good hand-winch with 2000 metres steel line specially constructed, 
Vid.-Selsk. Skrifter. I. M.-N. Kl. 1906. No. 3. 1 
