HYDROGRAPHY. , , , 



The determinations are, however, too few to have horizontal isohalines drawn that could be relied upon, 

 and thus have the limits of the currents determined. We cannot therefore say for certain whether a 

 station is situated near the limit of the current, or at a distance from it, nor can it be decided, whether 

 a low temperature or salinity observed at a station, is due to a certain direction af the current, or to 

 the position of the station in so far as regards the lateral boundaries of the current. 



There are, however, conclusive reasons, by which it can be established as a fact that 

 the current with Atlantic water is a branch proceeding from the Irmhiger Currr?il 

 in a westerly direction, so that section XII is situated in this branch; first it follows 

 the East Greenland Polar Current in a westerly, and then in a southerly direction. 



As these reasons we shall point out: i) A current on the eastern side of the land runs 

 generally on the northern hemisphere in a southerly direction. 2) It can hardly be supposed that a 

 small current would be able to run in a northerly direction beside such a rapidly running southerly 

 current as the East Greenland Polar Current. And as the most important reason 3) the presence of 

 the basin-water, that is to say, the cold and less salt water in sections X and XI in the middle of 

 the Denmark Strait. 



A condition which cannot be left aside, if the basin-water is to keep its characteristical pro- 

 perties, its small degree of salinity, and its low temperature, is that there should be a constant addition 

 of water in possession of the said properties, which addition only can be supplied by the Polar Current 

 or water influenced by this latter. If now the Atlantic Current in the western part of the Denmark 

 Strait was a current setting North, running along the Polar Current first in a northerly, and then in 

 an easterly direction to join the northern part of the Irmingcr Current afterwards, then it would, during 

 the whole of its course, have a high temperature. For if this be the case during its course in an 

 easterly direction, which is proved by the determinations, then it must also be the case when it is 

 setting in a northerly direction; it cannot of course have been subject to heating, as it is constantly 

 surrounded by water of a lower temperature: Polar-water on one side, and basin-water, on the other. 

 Under such circumstances, the basin-water would be completely excluded from the addition of colder 

 water, and it would successively be obliged to adopt the same qualities as the Atlantic-water, by which 

 it is surrounded on all sides. If, on the contrary, we make the assumption that the aforesaid Atlantic 

 Current is moving in a southerly direction, then it will, as during the whole of its course it has been 

 subject to the influence of the Polar Current, gradually get a lower temperature and a smaller degree 

 of salinity. The basin-water can then be renewed through this current, 



We must therefore consider it as an established fact that the current — as a westerly branch 

 of the Irmingcr Current — first goes in a westerly, and then in a southerly direction along the Polar 

 Current. It will then be seen that the whole system partly is forming a kind of rota- 

 tion, which, as a well known fact, is the form generally adopted by currents in the sea. 



According to what has been said in the foregoing, we have thus here in the Denmark Strait 

 a reciprocity of action between two currents, the Atlantic draught coming from the southward, and 



The Ingolf-Expedition. I. 2. '5 



