INTRODUCTION. 



The first systematically hydrographical investigations of the Seas round Iceland have been made 

 and collected by Admiral Irminger, who published the results of these investigations in the 

 magazine «Tidsskrift for Sovsesen> 1861 and 1870. Up to that time, our knowledge of the currents 

 in the vicinity of Iceland derived from reports about the drift of the ice, as well as from the narra- 

 tives of shipmasters, was vague and questionable. The admiral proved that the warm water of the 

 Atlantic reaches close up to or nearly close up to the south-coast of Iceland, stretching itself along 

 the west-coast, while a cold current from the Arctic sea is running along the east-coast of Greenland 

 and round Cape Farewell. 



In 1877 the cruiser Fylla made a great deal of investigations in the north-eastern part 

 of the Denmark-Strait. The results of these investigations have been published by Cpt Hoff- 

 meyer in the periodical «Geographisk Tidsskrift» second volume, 1878, page 88, and from this will 

 be seen, that the northerly current along the west coast of Iceland, the Irminger-current , consists of 

 warm Atlantic water from the surface to the bottom. Specially on the basis of observations of tempe- 

 rature from the meteorological station at Grimsey, Cpt Hoffmcyer comes to the conclusion that the 

 Irminger-current turns round Cape Nord, and forms the easterly current along the north coast of Iceland. 



This was confirmed by the measurings made by the cruiser Fylla in June and July 1878. 

 Cpt. Bardenfleth, at that time a lieutenant, has published a report of this in the periodical, «Geogra- 

 fisk Tidsskrift» 3d volume, 1879, page 42. Two sections were taken in a northerly direction from the 

 northern coast of Iceland, and it appears from these that the temperature up to a distance of about 

 50 miles from Cape Nord, is between 5 and 7°.5, as well at the surface as in the depth, which at 

 this distance from the land only amounts to 158 fathoms (298 metres). The second section from 

 Mevenklint showed on an average colder water than the first one from Cape Nord. Already at the 

 most southerly station at the mouth of the 0/jord, the temperature was at a depth of 44 fathoms 

 (83 metres) 3°, and it was not found to be much higher in the same depth at any of the stations 

 north of this place, while, on the contrary, the surface waters have a temperature of between 5 and 

 6 degrees. As shall be pointed out afterwards, such a high temperature is by no means a proof of 

 the water being of Atlantic origin, but the fact of the observed temperatures in the depth being sub- 

 ject to a decrease when advancing in a northerly direction, seems to imply the influence of the 

 Atlantic water. 



In 1879 when the cruiser Ingolf was sailing along the Greenland ice, it was ascertained that 

 Iceland and Greenland are connected by a submarine ridge, on which the depth is at the most 300 

 fathoms (565 metres), and that no doubt this ridge debars the ice-cold water at the bottom of the 



