132 



HYDROGRAPHY. 



having two currents here meeting one another; in consequence of which the ice-water in section XXI 

 cannot be stagnant, but water which is moving in a southerly direction, that is to say a current 

 The isohaline 35-00 in the sections XVIII and XIX is likewise sinking to the southward, and jud- 

 ging by this, the ice-water should also in these sections move in a southerly direction. In short, 

 according to the aforesaid experiment, we must be led to believe that the whole layer of ice-water, 

 east of Iceland, is flowing to the southward with a velocity that is greater than that of the under- 

 layer. In the meantime it is not proved by this that the ice-water is moving in a southerly direction, 

 as the depression in the under-layer, or the sinking of the isohaline may be due to other circum- 

 stances than those, on the basis of which the above-named trial is made. 



If it really be so, that the whole body of ice-water, east of Iceland, is moving in a southerly 

 direction until it falls in with the Atlantic Current, then it must be considered as a fact that it consti- 

 tutes the western part of the rotation in the North Ocean of which Professor Mohn has written in 

 his work: «Nordhavets Dybder, Temperatur og Stromninger» , Christiania 1887, and the ice-water 

 must therefore first be turned off in an easterly direction by the Atlantic Current to be carried to the 

 northward by the Gulf Stream afterwards. Provided that this assumption be correct, we must expect to 

 find Polar-water in a closer proximity to the coast of Norway than we hitherto have supposed 

 to find it 



But it may also be supposed that the system of currents in these seas is quite a different one. 

 We know as a fact that the part of the Polar Current that is nearest to the coast of Iceland, really 

 moves in a southerly direction. This has already been pointed out by Cpt Wandcl in his work: 

 Bemaerkninger til Beseilingen af Islands Kyster» 1879, page 12. It may then be that this part of 

 the Polar Current when it encounters the Atlantic Current is turned off, first in an easterly, and after- 

 wards in a northerly direction, by which it is made to form the easternmost part of the ice-water 

 east of Iceland. In this case, we have a rotation again. But the centre of rotation is now removed 

 into the ice-water itself, so that this latter virtually is limited to the extent in which it was found by 

 the Ingolf-exfiedition. 



Whether the whole of the body of ice-water observed by the Ingolf-expedition, is moving to 

 the southward, or whether it is forming a rotation of its own, I cannot judge of with certainty 

 on the basis of the determinations of temperature and salinity at hand. Another circumstance is speaking 

 in favour of the first-named conception. 



During the voyage of the Ingolf from Iceland to Jan Mayen in 1896, a route was followed 

 through the stations no, in, 112, 113 and 114. On this voyage 20 current-bottles were thrown over- 

 board, and of these latter 10 have been found now at the places indicated on page 20 and 21. As 

 the bottles and their boxes, according to what is said on page 20, only were visible a little above the 

 surface of the water, there is every reason to believe that, upon the whole, they must have followed 

 the motion of the surface-water, as it would be next to impossible that the wind under such circum- 

 stances could have carried the bottles long distances, without their being accompanied at the same 

 time by the water in which they were originally floating. 



Bottle Nr. 8, thrown out west of station in, was found about 2'/* months after at the Faroe 

 islands. The drift of this bottle agrees with the supposition of the Polar Current going south. Bottle 



