94 FRIDTJOF NANSEN. M.-N. Kl. 



found in 1912 at Stat. 36, at 580 metres (0.4^ C. and 34.91 %o). in 80'' 

 36' N, north of Spitsbergen. 



If it be thus correct that the deep-water of the North Polar Basin is of 

 the same kind as that of the Norwegian Sea and has come from the latter, 

 as assumed above (p. 39), this deep-water cannot prove anything as to the 

 extension of the deep North Polar Basin because it, might then just as 

 well be carried over the low threshold into a narrow basin, like a big 

 and very deep fjord, as into a wide basin. Thus far there is still less 

 necessity of assuming that the North Polar Basin has a wide extension, 

 than the writer thougt in 1907. 



The one reason which especially seems to the writer to idicate that 

 the deep basin may not have such a wide extension into the unknown 

 north as he at first thought probable, is the drift of the Fram 1893 to 1896. 



Although the drift of the ice was chiefly caused by the winds, we 

 would expect that, owing to the deflecting effect of the Earth's rotation, 

 the moving ice would be deflected towards the right until it met with 

 resistance from a coast or continental shelf, and would then follow along 

 this coast or shelf, keeping it on its right hand side. This would be in 

 full accordance with what is always the case with currents and drifting ice 

 everywhere else in the Northern hemisphere. 



The writer has shown [1902. pp. 365 et seq\ that during the Fram- 

 Expedition (1893 to 1896) the directions of the drift of the ice for shorter 

 periods, only with few exceptions, deviated to the right of the directions of 

 the shifting winds, and generally the angle of deviation was considerable. 

 But nevertheless the direction of the resultant of the whole drift of the 

 Fram nearly coincided with the direction of the wind-resultant for the same 

 period, or it even deviated a little {i^\ to the left of the latter. 



This proves that the ice, drifting before the wind, must have met 

 with more resistance whenever it was carried towards the right — /. c. 

 towards the north and north-east — of the average direction of the drifting 

 of the Fram, than when it was carried towards the left of the latter. Two 

 explanations are then possible: there may either have been land (or a 

 shallow sea) to the right of the Fram's track, which offered resistance to 

 the drift of the ice, — or there may have been a permanent surface- 

 current, directed west- and south-westwards tow^ards the left of the Fram's 

 track, and sufficiently strong to counterbalance the deviation of the ice 

 towards the right of the resultant of the winds during the whole drift. 



Let us first consider the latter possibility. As the writer has pointed 

 out before [1907, p. 483], such a directon of a surface-current would be 

 difficult to explain. Whatever the cause and origin of the current might 



