DIRECTION OF THE EAST GREENLAND CURRENT. 103 



run in a straight line towards the banks of Newfoundland, is also 

 derived from the observations of the temperature of the surface 

 made on many voyages to and from Greenland. I have noted the 

 observations of two voyages in the subjoined map ; ' one voyage 

 by Captain Graah to Greenland, in May, 1828 ; and the other by 

 Captain Holboll, from Greenland to Copenhagen, in September, 

 1844. 



Captain Graah, who during his researches in Greenland, passed 

 two summers and one winter on its eastern coast, between Cape 

 Farewell and 65^° lat. N., says that he never found the temperature 

 of the sea here higher than 0°-9+R, (34° Fahr.) 2 



Supposing that the Arctic current from East Greenland pursued 

 its course in a straight line towards the banks of Newfoundland, it 

 would be crossed, on the voyages from Copenhagen to the Danish 

 colonies in Greenland, between 38° and 45° w. Gr., and so high a 

 temperature in the surface of the ocean as from 4° to 6° E. (41° to 

 45 o, Fahr.), as is found on this route and marked in the plan 

 would, according to my opinion, be impossible, only 1° or 2° to the 

 southward of the parallel of Cape Farewell ; as it is a well-known 

 fact that the principal ocean currents maintain their temperatures 

 through very considerable distances of their courses. 



This comparatively high temperature of the surface of the ocean 

 so near to the limits of that current which carries enormous masses 

 of ice from the ocean near Spitzbergen round Cape Farewell, war- 

 rants my opinion that the waters of the Atlantic Ocean move in a 

 n -westerly or northerly direction, towards the eastern and southern 

 coasts of Greenland, 3 and that this indraught towards the land 

 is undoubtedly the cause of the ice being so closely pressed on to 

 these parts of the coast as it is so frequently on the s. coast, and 

 almost constantly on the e. coast, rendering the eastern coast 

 entirely inaccessible from seaward. 4 



1 This map is not found in the Society's ' Journal.' 



2 Graah says, "The temperature of the sea was frequently observed during 

 the whole voyage, and was always found between 28° and 34° Fahrenheit. 



3 Graah says in his Narrative (p. 23, English translation),- " In the mouth of 

 Davis Strait I found the temperature of the surface of the ocean from 4° to 3°1 E. 

 (41° to 39° Fahr.,, though we were in the proximity of the ice. From this I 

 concluded that a current from the South predominated here, because I never before 

 in the vicinity of ice had found the temperature of the water excei ding 1 0, 8 R. 

 (36° Fahr.), and this conclusion was confirmed when, coming to the northward of 

 the ice, I found the temperature of the water I'M +R. (34 '5 Fahr.)" 



1 Besides tie- evidence afforded by the ice-drifts and the temperature of the 

 water, as cited by the author, conclusive proof of a northerly set is found in the 

 driftwood which has been so frequently met with around Cape Farewell and off 

 the w. coast of Greenland. A few examples will suffice. A plant of mahogany 



was drifted to Disco, ami formed into a. table for the Danish governor at Holstein 

 borg (' Quarterly Review,' No. xxxvi.). Admiral Lowenbrn picked up a worm- 



