HYDROGRAPHY. IIt . 



According to what has been represented here, those powers, or the two powers to which the 

 rotation in the Denmark Strait is due, originate from the kinetic energy in the East Greenland Polar 

 Current and the Irminger Current. Those bodies of water in the basin of the Denmark Strait which 

 are most distant from the acting powers, will thus, as a matter of course, be those least acted upon, 

 so that the velocity of the bodies of water must decrease considerably from the outward towards the 

 axis of rotation. According to this, a very slow motion will take place in the middle part of the 

 Denmark Strait, and we find therefore here in the depth rather large differences of temperature in 

 equally large depths, and very little similarity between isotherms and isohalines, as these curves are 

 not subject to alteration in an equal degree, in consequence of the vicinity of the Polar Current. 



Owing to the above explanation, and according to what has been stated here, we might have 

 spared all the determinations made in 1895. The fact of section X fitting so completely into the system, 

 in spite of this section only containing determinations from 1895, implies that the state of matters 

 described here also existed in 1895, and we are therefore led to believe that it is always 

 existing in the Denmark Strait. 



SECTION XIII. 



Along the northwest and northcoast of Iceland. 



The stations 98, 99 and 129 in this section, in connection with the stations 15 and 16, constitute 

 the only row of stations which the expedition has athwart of the Iceland-Greenland ridge. While 

 the stations 89 and 99 still throughout hold a salinity of more than 35'25, station 129 shows a far 

 smaller degree of salinity. The two first stations appertain to the Irminger Current. If station 129 is 

 lying in the same current, the nature of the current must have been subject to a great alteration in 

 the tract of the sea from station 99 to station 129. It might be supposed for inst. that station 129 

 was situated in the coast-water, and that in consequence of this it had such a small degree of salinity. 

 If, however, we compare the two stations 129 and 88, with respect to their position in proportion to 

 the main land, we come to the conclusion, that if station 88 is lying outside the coast-water, which 

 is testified by the measurings, the same must be the case with station 129. Nor can it be supposed 

 that the Irminger Ctirrent should have so small a breadth northwest of Iceland, that it is running 

 between the land and the said station. 



There is then only one conclusion to come to, and this is, that the salinity of the Irminger- 

 current during its course along the northwest coast of Iceland must be subject to a rapid decrease 

 through the influence of the Polar-water. That such a rapid alteration should be possible, can only 

 be accounted for by the fact of the current not being very strong at this place, and that 

 it only moves with very little velocity. The branch of the Irminger Current running to the 

 westward, is upon the whole much more extensive than the one setting to the eastward. Circum- 

 stances were so at the beginning of August 1896. It is likely to be supposed that the extent of the 

 Irminger Current itself, as well as that of its two branches, change periodically in the course of the 

 year, in consequence of the strength with which the Polar Current is manifesting itself. 



The stations 16 and 15 were taken in 1895, and a little farther from the land than the stations 

 98 and 99. From the table will be seen that while the two stations, 16 and 15, show ice-water at the 



15* 





