104 FRIDTJOF NANSEN. M.-N. Kl. 
of Spitsbergen, with a surface temperature of 52°C. (Mohn’s Stat. 362, 
in 79° 59° N. Lat., 5° 40° E. Long.) In July, 1897, salinities of about 
35'0 "/oo were observed on the sea-surface between 78° and 79° N. Lat. 
west of Spitsbergen, according to O. Pettersson and G. Ekman}, 
It is evident, that if water with such comparatively high salinities be 
cooled down to freezing point during the winter, a very active vertical 
circulation will arise, which may break trough the underlying warmer 
but more saline water and at last reach the bottom. Surface-water 
with a salinity of 34.82 0/0, as at Arrhenius’s Stat. IV, will have a 
density of 28:06 at its freezing-point (—1'90° C.), and water with a 
salinity of 35'0 %0 will have a density of about 28/20 at its freezing 
point (—1'925° C.). It was pointed out above what great changes in 
Salinity and Temperature between Summer and Winter, may arise on 
and near the sea-surface in the Barents Sea and in the region of Amund- 
sen's Stations 13—23, north of Jan Mayen. It would seem probable that 
similar great changes may also occur during the winter, in the sea north 
ofthe Spitsbergen coasts, and heavy bottom-water, like that of the eastern 
Barents Sea, might then be formed on the continental shelf in this re- 
gion; its salinity would in that case be increased by the formation of 
ice at the surface. The heavy cold water thus resulting may sink, and 
flow northwards along the slope of the Continental Shelf, into the deep 
North Polar Basin, where after being gradually mixed with overlying - 
warmer waters, it may contribute to the formation of the bottom-water. 
Future investigations will finally have to decide whether the above 
value of about 35°10 0/00 for the salinity of the bottom-water of the 
North Polar Basin is too high?. If this determination be confirmed, 
the possibility of a communication between the deep North Polar Basin 
and the deep basin of the Norwegian Sea, as well as of their bottom- 
waters, will be finally excluded. But in this case there are, as is shown 
above, two regions where the bottom-water of the North Polar Basin 
might originate, by being cooled down directly through radiation from 
the sea-surface, vz. in the seas north of Spitsbergen and near northern 
Novaya Zemlya. 
It was stated above that only a small quantity of water was required 
yearly, to feed the circulation of the cold bottom-water of the Norwegian 
Loc inc Bet 
? Just one trustworthy water-sample at 1000 or 1500 metres, from the sea to the north 
of Spitsbergen, would be sufficient to decide this question. The writer has made 
several attempts to get such a sample taken by different expeditions, but hitherto 
without success, nor has he been able to find time to go and take it himself. It is 
to be hoped, that in the near future this much to be desired sample may_be taken. 
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