THE OCEANOGRAPHY OF THE SEA OF GREENLAND.« 
[With 2 plates.] 
(A résumé of the observations made during the expedition of the Belgica, 
in 1905.) 
By D. DAMaAs. 
a 
In 1905 the Due d’Orleans undertook what has proved to be a 
fortunate cruise to Spitzbergen and northeast Greenland upon the 
Belgica, commanded by M. A. de Gerlache. The oceanographic 
observations made during the cruise by the commandant and M. Koe- 
foed, working in connection with the Norwegian Bureau of Fish- 
eries, form a valuable contribution to our still very imperfect knowl- 
edge of the ocean comprised between these two great polar lands. 
The region explored by the Belgica in 1905 constitutes a special 
basin and merits the name Sea of Greenland, which has recently 
been given to it. It is situated between Spitzbergen and Bear 
Island on the east and Greenland on the west. To the south it 
opens out into the Sea of Norway a little below 70° north latitude; 
its meridional limit is therefore the least well defined. The ancient 
voleano Jan-Mayen, which raises itself between Greenland and Nor- 
way, alone indicates the conventional limit of the basin. The gen- 
eral form of the Sea of Greenland is plainly triangular. Measured 
along the seventy-first parallel of north latitude its assumed base is 
more than 780 marine miles in length. Its borders on the east and 
west converge toward the north. 
This form is revealed better if one considers the relief of the 
oceanic basin (fig. 1). Opposite Spitzbergen, and particularly op- 
posite Greenland, there extends a large continental platform. If we 
set the isobar of 1,500 meters as the limit of the base of this coastal 
platform it will be seen that the central basin has a maximum depth, 
so far as known, of 3,630 meters, and constitutes a special depres- 
sion separated from the analogous basin of the Sea of Norway by 
the low divide which carries the island of Jan-Mayen and which 
unites eastern Greenland with Bear Island. 
“Translated by permission from La Géographie, Paris, vol. 19, No. 6, June 
15, 1909. 
369 
