1906. No. 3. AMUNDSEN’S OCEANOGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS IN 1901. 93 
This is an extremely slow movement; and inasmuch as no appreciable 
difference has been observed between the bottom-temperatures on the 
eastern and western sides of the deep basin to the south of the latitude 
of Jan Mayen, it seems probable that the bottom-waters really move 
with much greater velocities and that the movements of the water are 
much more complicated. There may be several vortices of cyclonic 
or anticyclonic movement near the bottom, perhaps one in the southern 
part of the Norwegian Sea, south of 70° N. Lat., and one or more 
in its northern part, between Jan Mayen, Spitsbergen, and Greenland, 
Renewal of the Bottom Water of the Norwegian Sea. 
It might seem somewhat astonishing that the great bulk of bottom- 
water, filling at least two thirds of the whole basin of the Norwegian 
Sea, should originate from such a small area as that above indicated; 
but the actual renewal of the cold bottom-water in this basin must be 
an extremely slow process. The Bottom-Water does not extend across 
the ridge anywhere between Iceland and Norway, as is easily seen by 
examining the temperature on the Iceland-Færoe-Scotland Ridge, which 
is nowhere below zero. This is fully proved by the numerous soundings 
taken by the Danish, Scottish, and Norwegian expeditions during the 
last five years. It is also very improbable that any bottom-water with 
a temperature below —1°C. ever gets across the ridge between Iceland 
and Greenland. No Stations taken by the Danes, or during the expe- 
dition with the “Michael Sars”, in 1900, indicate any very cold water 
near the bottom in this region. 
Capt. Ryder took one souding (Stat. YXV///, Aug. 1892), be- 
tween Iceland and Greenland, in 67° 19' N. Lat. and 25° 3° W. Long,, 
which is north of the ridge, and he found at a depth of 1280 metres 
(700 fathoms) a bottom temperature of —0'6" C. 
During the Danish Zngolf-Expedition, in 1895 and 1896, a great 
many Stations were taken in the sea between Iceland and Greenland, but 
most of them were on the southern side of the Iceland-Greenland Ridge, 
and gave comparatively high bottom-temperatures, above 1° C. with the 
exception of Stat. 12 (in 64° 38° N. Lat., 32° 37° W. Long.) where the bottom- 
temperature was 0°3° C. at a depth of 1958 metres which would seem to 
indicate that in this region there may have been some southward outflow of 
cold bottom-water across the ridge to the north. Stat. ı5 was on the 
ridge, at 66° 18’ N. Lat., 25° 59’ W. Long., and gave a bottom-temperature 
of —o-75° C. at 621 metres, the lowest bottom-temperature observed in 
