1906. No.3. AMUNDSEN’S OCEANOGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS IN 1901. 47 
The inclination of the isopycnals, as well as the distribution of 
„temperatures and salinities in the different sections indicate that, as a 
rule, there is a cyclonic movement of the water in the central depression 
‘of the eastern Barents Sea (cf maps Pls. II, IM). This cyclonic 
movement is most rapid along the southern and eastern slope, 
whilst the water along the axis of the cyclone is comparatively 
stationary. Along the western side of the depression the cyclonic 
movement receives fresh supply of Atlantic water, coming from the 
west, especially along the submarine channels, in about 72°, 73° 
20’, and 75° 30° N. Lat. (cf. maps Pls. II, II) and therefore the 
salinities are frequently rather high on that side. On the north- 
eastern side of the cyclone comparatively warm water is given off 
towards the sea between Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land (cf. the 
surface-temperature and salinities of the Capella, Pl. I, and the maps for 
100 and 200 metres PI. II, III). Along the axis of the cyclone, there 
will be comparatively favourable conditions for the formation of cold bottom- 
water by cooling at the surface during winter, as there is only little 
horizontal circulation. An effective vertical circulation may there be 
established between the surface and the bottom, with the formation of 
very cold water having a comparatively high salinity. But as the depth 
is so great, it cannot be expected that the formation of ice during the 
winter will increase the salinity of the sea-water by so much as it does 
in the shallow water over the coastal shelf of Novaya Zemlya; and 
unusually high salinities near the bottom, such as might be found in the 
latter region (cf. Wollebzk’s Stat. II) are not to be expected. 
In Breitfuss’s section for August, 1902 (Fig. 2, p. 26), the bottom- 
o 
I rises very near the surface (about 35 
water with temperatures below 
metres below the surface) in the central part of the depression at his 
Stat. 63 (Fig. 1). Some time in the previous winter or spring there 
would probably have been found, somewhere in this region, nearly homo- 
geneous water with temperatures of about —ı'4° C. and salinity about 
or above 34°9 %9 between the surface and the bottom. The conditions 
seem to be strikingly like those found in the region of Amundsen's Stations 
13—23, east of Northern Greenland as will be described in the next 
chapter. The form of the isotherm of —1°C. is, for instance, almost 
- the same at Amundsen’s Stat. 16 (see Section IX, Pl. X) as it is here 
at Breitfuss's Stat. 63. 
Amundsen’s surface observations seem to indicate, that even on the 
southwestern side of the Central Hollow of the eastern Barents Sea, there 
may be the necessary conditions for the formation of cold bottom-water. 
