1915- No. 2. 



SPITSBERGEN WATERS. 



of the fjords inside, and will thus have an influence upon the nature of 

 the water rilling the fjords, or in any case their outer part. The inter- 

 mediate layers in the fjords and on the shelf will thus acquire a somewhat 

 higher salinity in the north, than at the corresponding levels in the fjords 

 and on the shelf farther south. The sea over the shelf in the north will be 

 covered by a thin layer of Arctic water with low salinities, and by ice, 

 and the vertical circulation caused by the cooling during the winter will 

 thus not be so effective there as in the south. There will consequently 

 not be the same conditions for the formation of an intermediate layer with 

 low temperatures at 60 and 100 metres. 



In the following table are given the vertical series of observations 

 taken at several stations on the shelf along the west coast of Spitsbergen. 

 Stat. 54 (Sept. i) is taken outside the mouth of Horn Sound, Stat. 53 (Aug. 

 31) outside Bell Sound, Stat. 49 (Aug. 29) outside the mouth of Ice Fjord, 

 Stat. 12 (July 27) on the shelf far outside Kings Bay, and Stat. 15 (July 29) 

 outside Cross Bay (see Fig. i). 



On the whole, the intermediate layer with minjmum temperatures is 

 much colder in the south than farther north, in spite of the later season. 

 At the southernmost station, 54, the temperatures are below zero at all 

 depths between the surface and the bottom, and the minimum temperature 

 at 85 metres is 1.19 C. Farther north, at Station 53, off Bell Sound,' 

 the water is very much warmer. It was only at the surface that I happened 

 to observe a temperature below zero in the one vertical series taken at 



