I o FRIDTJOF NANSEN. M.-N. Kl. 



much greater variation in the temperature and salinity vertically at the 

 former localities than at the latter, showing a more active horizontal 

 circulation. At Stat. 2, over a submarine channel in the bank north of 

 Bear Island, we found a layer of comparatively warm Atlantic water below 

 a depth of 100 metres. At Stat. 3, where the depth was 60 metres, and 

 at Stat. 4 with a similar depth, the water was practically homogeneous in all 

 layers except near the surface, with a temperature of about 0.7° C, and 

 a salinity of 34.51 °'oo- This water seems to have been fairly stationary, 

 and is what we may call the winter-water of the bank. The vertical di- 

 stribution of temperature and salinity differs from that of the upper layers 

 of the Polar Current, where there is not, as a rule, such uniformity; the 

 temperature has generally a minimum at about 60 or 70 metres, and the 

 salinity increases downwards from the uppermost layer. 



It was evidently also due to the slow circulation of this bank-water, 

 that a little north of Stat. 4 we met with much ice extending south-west- 

 wards to a short distance beyond the edge of the shallow bank. It is 

 evidently a general feature of the .Arctic seas that the drifting ice has a 

 tendency to remain for a long time over the shallow banks, while it is 

 swept away by the currents outside the edge of the banks, where they 

 run with comparatively great velocity [cf. Helland-Hansen and Koefoed, 

 1909]. 



The Spitsbergen Atlantic Current. 



Our Stations 56 and 57 (Fig. 11), Stat. 17 (Fig. 12), Stat. 19 (Fig, 13), 

 and 20 (Fig. 14) are all of them (see Fig. i) situated in the Spits- 

 bergen Atlantic Current running northwards along the shelf west and 

 north-west of Spitsbergen. In our paper on the Spitsbergen Sea, 

 Helland-Hansen and I pointed out [1912, pp. 14 et seq. and 20 et seq\ 

 that the maximum salinity of this current south-west and west of Spits- 

 bergen cannot rise much above 35.00 "/oo- The correctness of this view 

 is also proved by the observations of 1912, the maximum salinity observed 

 being 35.04 ° 00 found at 100 metres at Stat. 57, south-west of Spitsbergen. 

 The other high salinities were between 35.00 and 35.02 %o ^t Stations 

 56 and 57. At Stations 19 and 20, north-west of Spitsbergen, the salinity 

 of the Atlantic water had decreased to between 34.91 and 34.93 %o- 



Our observations of 1912 show great similarity to those taken in this 

 region during the Isachsen Expedition of 1910. Our Stations 56 and 57 

 are nearly in the same localities as the Stations 10 and 11 of the 

 Isachsen expediton (76° 16' N., 12° 30' E., and 76° 20' N., 13° 45' E.) taken 

 on June 27th, 1910. At these stations the following observations were taken: 



