28 FRIDTJOF NANSEN. M.-N. Kl. 



this Station. The intermediate water-layer seems, however, to change very 

 rapidly on the shelf; for only half an hour later a new vertical series of 

 observations taken at the same station, 53, gave appreciably lower tem- 

 peratures at 20 and 50 metres, the temperature at the latter depth being 

 even below zero (see Table I). The layer may have been lifted about 

 10 metres. There are also great differences between the temperatures of 

 the intermediate layer at Stations 12 and 15, and we may also mention 

 Station 16, situated on the same shelf outside Kings Bay and Cross Bay, 

 with no great distance between them. The changes in the intermediate 

 layer are probably due, to a great extent, to the tidal currents carrying 

 the waters to and fro. 



But the changes at the same stations in short intervals of time are 

 evidently due to vertical oscillations of the strata, and they occur on the 

 shelf, e. g. at Stat. 53, as well as in the fjords. At Stat. 50, on August 30th, 

 1912, 2.00 p. m., — i.oô^'C. was observed at 90 metres; half an hour 

 later — 0.54 ''C. was observed at the same depth indicating a vertical dis- 

 placement of the water strata. But as there was just at this level evidently 

 a sharply defined boundary between the cold bottom-layer and the warmer 

 and much lighter overlying strata, no great vertical movement would be 

 required to cause a difference in temperature of 0.5 '^C. At Stat. 44, on 

 August 24th, 1912, 9.50 a. m. 1.45 "C. and 32.77 %(j were observed at 20 

 metres, half an hour later, at 10.20 a. m., 0.89" C. and 32.75 %o were 

 observed at the same depth. As the densities would not differ much 

 {Gt = 26.25 and 26.28) it is, however, possible that there has been a hori- 

 zontal movement of the water in this case. 



On the whole it may, however, be said that there is a certain rela- 

 tion between the temperatures and the salinities of the intermediate layer; 

 temperatures below zero, for instance, being as a rule combined with 

 salinities of between 34.35 and 34.65 "/00» while the underlying layer with 

 temperatures above zero has salinities above 34.65 o/qo and increasing with 

 rising temperature. This fact seems to prove that it is the same intermediate 

 cold layer we find at the different stations, but sometimes situated nearer 

 the surface, at other times deeper; and on the other hand, the cold layer 

 may sometimes be thinner, sometimes thicker, a condition which probably 

 depends on the currents. The reason why at the southernmost station 

 (Stat. 54), the water-layers are so much colder than at the stations farther 

 north, is obviously that we here meet the water of the Spitsbergen Polar 

 Current less intermixed with summer waters, and the conditions are more 

 like those of the winter, and very much like those we find in the Polar 

 Current east of Spitsbergen. 



