HYDROGRAPHY. j,. 



Nr. 5 was thrown out east of station no, and found 8 months after at «.Romsdalem> on the western 

 coast of Norway. Bottle Nr. 15 thrown out about midway between the stations 112 and 113, and found 

 in Fin/nark 16 months after. If now it must be supposed that the surface water can move away from 

 the East Icelandic Polar Current, and get close to the coast of Norway, it is, according to my opinion, 

 very likely that a great part of the layer of the ice-water is following it, and specially the part 

 of it that by heating has attained so high a temperature that it is able to flow on top of the salter 

 surface-layer of the Northern-Sea. It is difficult, on the basis of the circumstances before us, to say 

 for certain whether the above-named connection between the western and the eastern part of the 

 Northern-Sea is taking place at all times of the year, but it is not very likely, for it is a well known 

 fact that the Atlantic is sending a current, the Gulf Stream, along the western coast of Norway, and 

 according to this, it must be supposed that under general circumstances the Polar-water from the 

 East Icelandic Polar Current will keep to the westward of the Gulf Stream , until it is driven in over 

 the warm current by strong westerly winds. 



That the surface-layer can move a long distance, independent of the ice -water to which it 

 originally belongs, has been mentioned before. This state of matters will furthermore be able to ac- 

 count for the fact of the bottles Nr. 17 and Nr. 20, which were thrown out far to the northward, having 

 lauded in Iceland. For taking it for granted — which for the rest is a well known fact — that the 

 supply from the northward to the East Icelandic Polar Current is weakened in the summer time, and 

 that the ice-water at this time of the year by preference is flowing in a south-westerly direction 

 towards the East Greenland Polar Current, we shall be able to understand why the two bottles in 

 question have been cast up on the shores of Iceland. 



According to what has been said on page 118, a current with comparatively warm water of 

 little salinity is flowing between the regular East Icelandic Polar Current and the east-coast of Iceland- 

 At the south-eastern corner of Iceland, this current must trend off in a south- 

 easterly direction together with the Polar Current. It can namely be seen from section 

 II that the warm and salt Atlantic-water is stretching close in to Home-Fjord without any layer that 

 is in possession of the aforesaid qualities between itself and the coast. According to this, the main 

 body of the southerly fresh-water -current does not continue its course along the southern coast of 

 Iceland, but is forced into a south-easterly direction by the Atlantic-water. 



The duty of this current will therefore to all appearances be to form a kind of transitional 

 link between the Atlantic-water and the regular ice-water, a stratum of water with pretty high 

 temperatures, but with a salinity that is but a little higher than the salinity of the ice-water. 

 Such water must have a very small specific gravity, and in consemience of this, it will try to expand 

 at the surface, where it will be moving to and fro according to tne^revailing direction of the wind, 

 but still in such a manner that it gets a resulting motion, first in an easterly and afterwards in a 

 northerly direction. The fact is that a motion of this kind will be brought about by the resultant of 

 the directions of the wind in these quarters and, moreover, the Gulf Stream will contribute to give the 

 water in question a northerly direction, when it has reached this current 



