SS JOHAN HJORT. M.-N. Kl. 



the same time, the current becomes dammed up in the Christiania Fjord 

 and Cattegat. This year the Surface Charts of this period therefore 

 shew, owing to heavy westerly gales and scanty rainfall, the Bank 

 Water lying over the entire surface of the Skagerak and the waters 

 of the Norwegian Coast (1893 B}, whilst, in other years, the current 

 may be met with along the coast with a breadth of from 16 to 

 20 miles. This year, as in 1893, the Bank Water, too, in the deep, was 

 of great thickness, and onl}- covered, even in the Christiania Fjord, by 

 a layer of Baltic Water but a few mètres in thickness, whilst in other 

 years, on the other hand, the Baltic Current may be of a depth of 40 to 

 50 mètres (see PI. V, Fig. 5). The North Sea Water also increases greatly 

 in thickness during the Autumn, and late in the Autumn, in December, 

 the Bank Water and North Sea Water combined, may be of a thick- 

 ness of from 200 to 300 mètres. By this the Atlantic Water is forced 

 down to a great depth, whence, first during the Spring, it again rises. 

 T/ie Winter Period in many respects resembles that of the Autumn. 

 The North Sea and Bank Waters, as a rule, are of great thickness 

 along the West Coast of Norway, right up to the Lofotens. Besides 

 this, the Winter on the West Coast has a general stamp of the con- 

 ditions of the Baltic Current. Some years this current may be dammed 

 up at the head of the Skagerak (See D, 1894), other years it reaches 

 to Christianssand (E, 1895); while in other years it flows along the 

 West Coast as a deep lying current (according to earlier temperature- 

 observations). If the current is dammed up in the Skagerak, the West 

 Coast is washed by the water of the North Sea, or the mixed layers of 

 warm and salt water. In such years the current first reaches the West 

 Coast when its thickness increases during the Spring and is driven on 

 by the addition of fresh water from the rivers of the Baltic and Nor- 

 way. At the same time the Atlantic Ocean water commences to rise 

 towards the surface and thus prepares the hydrographical conditions of 

 the Summer. 



The Temperature during the Summer falls from the surface to- 

 wards the bottom. It is highest in the Christiania Fjord (170) and 

 sinks along the West Coast (14 to 150) the further North it proceeds. 

 It is higher in the Baltic Current than at sea in the Atlantic under the 

 same latitude. The temperature in the deep falls fastest in the Bank 

 Water layers, and these also appear, thereby, to be mixed layers of 

 North Sea Water and that of the Baltic Current. The temperature at 



