OCEAN CURRENTS 



191 



runs up the west side of Spitsbergen, at the northern extremity 

 of which it divides into three main branches running north 

 and north-east, but mainly to the west. There is a mixture of 

 water between the warm Atlantic Current and the cold East 

 Greenland Current, with, on the whole, a cyclonal circulation. 

 It was along the western edge of this cold current (in about 



FiG. 41. — Surface Currexts axd Salixities ix the Greexlaxd- 

 NoRWAY Area. (Helland-Haxsen axd Naxsex.) 



79° N.) that the Spitsbergen whalers hunted the whale after 

 the first period of the bay whale fishery was over (i.e., from 

 1623 onwards).* This East Greenland Current, in its surface 

 layers at least, consists for the main part of land water derived 

 from the North Asiatic and North American rivers. 



The Florida Current flows into Barents Sea. It is now 

 * J. T. Jenkins, " A Short History of the Whale Fisheries." 



