20 



DEPTHvS. 



In the Icelandic waters there is still a great deal to be done with respect to surveying of the 

 flats, and soundings were taken whenever there was an opportunity to do so, and we succeeded in 

 gathering a considerable amount of material of interest for navigation as well as for fishing. 



The whole of the work mentioned here, has been delivered to the Hydrographic Office to be 

 laid down in the charts of the respective seas. 



CURRENT-BOTTLES. 



Current-bottles were thrown overboard on the 2 d voyage of the expedition in 1896 in that 

 tract of the sea, from which I supposed the drifting of these bottles would offer the greatest interest, 

 namely on the route from Langanas to Jan Mayen. As will be seen by the following table, 20 bottles 

 were thrown overboard. 



The bottles employed for this purpose were common soda-water bottles, which were corked 

 after the note, of which the following is a copy, had been put into them. 



The bottles were laid down in small wooden boxes to prevent them from being broken when 

 they stranded on a rocky coast, and the empty space between the sides of the boxes and the bottles 

 were filled with melted pitch, whereafter the box, to make it attract the greatest possible attention, 

 was painted red with a white cross on the four long sides of it. The weight of the box and its 

 contents was adjusted in such a manner that it would keep afloat on the surface of the freshest water 

 it might fall in with, even if the wood be a little water-soaked. 



