THE DEPOSITS OF THE SEA-BOTTOM. ! 5 



eroded at the coast, that the former will not to so high a degree as the latter be precipitated near 

 the place where it comes into the sea, but will be spread over larger areas. The two means of trans- 

 port will also be quite unequally acted upon by the different sorts of agencies; while the material 

 washed out in the water, is only driven by the currents, to begin with by the surface currents, later 

 by the deeper ones, the icebergs will be acted upon boths by the winds and the surface currents, 

 and when the material from them has got into the water, and sunk down in it, it will likewise be 

 carried away by the deeper currents. All these facts may give rise to a very complicated state of 

 distribution, from which it is very difficult to account for the single factors, and an attempt to point 

 out the effects of the directions of winds and currents in the territory of the Ingolf Expedition will 

 scarcely lead to any result, as these very directions are here complicated and not fully known; in a 

 later section I shall find an opportunity for returning to these circumstances. 



We shall now have to examine the effects of the two most important factors with regard to 

 the distribution of the deposits, that is to say, the distance from the land and the depth; of these 

 factors the former no dotibt plays the greater part, and it is altogether remarkable, how the material 

 from land spreads everywhere in the sea in all directions, even in the teeth of the currents and the 

 prevalent directions of the wind. If we look at the course of the curves on plate II for instance, we 

 shall see that in a locality southwest of Iceland comparatively small amoutits of carbonate of lime 

 are found, the curves forming rather large bends into the Atlantic; this fact, as will be shown in a 

 later section, has its origin from Icelandic material, a specially large mass of which has accordingly 

 been carried into that direction. This, as has been mentioned before, may perhaps be connected with 

 the large streams that are found in this region, but as far as we know, the Gulf-stream reaches close 

 to the southwest coast of Iceland, and thus it seems quite incomprehensible how the material is able 

 to spread so far down in this direction; the same is found north of Iceland; here also the material 

 has spread in the opposite direction of the predominant current, almost quite to Jan Mayen. That 

 the depth is not of so much importance with regard to the distribution may be seen very clearly to 

 the southwest of Iceland; as the Ingolf Expedition itself has essentially been instrumental in making 

 clear, a submarine ridge is here found stretching from Iceland in a straight line towards the south- 

 west far into the Atlantic, where by degrees it disappears; how prominent this ridge must be on the 

 bottom of the sea may be imagined by considering the three stations 75, 81, and 82, lying in a 

 straight line across the ridge, so that the distance between the outer ones is only ca. 120 km., and 

 yet the specimen 81 is lying about 300 faths higher than the two others; that is to say, a difference 

 in depth of 1800 feet on a distance of 120 km. Now it might be expected that the curves designating 

 the amount of carbonic acid, would follow this ridge tolerably close; but in reality on the ridge itself, 

 especially on the western slope of it, particularly large percentages of carbonate of lime are found, 

 while on the eastern slope and east of the ridge the percentages are much smaller; thus the curves 

 designating the amount of carbonate of lime make bends situated beside the ridge, a fact, of which 

 for the present I am quite unable to give any explanation. Round the south point of Greenland very 

 large depths are found; when the stations 20 — 22, and 38 show no larger amounts of carbonate of 

 lime the reason must be the proximity of the land. The depth may, however, in other places exercise 

 an important influence, as is especially the case on the ridge between the Faroe Islands and Iceland, 



