34 



FRIDTJOF NANSEN. 



M.-N. Kl. 



at Stations 22 and 23, which were not far from the ISACHSEN stations just 

 mentioned; but while the temperature on August 26th, 1910, was between 

 2.87 and 3.i3C, on August 6th, 1912, it was about i.58C. at all depths 

 below the surface. The difference may to some extent be due to the 

 fact that the observations in 1912 were taken nearly 3 weeks earlier in the 

 season, but nevertheless the sea to the north of Spitsbergen was obvi- 

 ously somewhat colder in the summer of 1912 than in the summer of 1910 

 (see above p. 19). The vertical uniformity of the water-layers over the shelf 

 in this region may possibly to some extent be due to the orbital motion 

 of the water, caused by the tidal currents over the shallow bank. 



At the more eastern stations on the shelf north of Spitsbergen there 

 is somewhat less uniformity in the vertical distribution of temperature which 

 may on the whole have a tendency to increase slightly towards the bottom 



(cf. Stations 3133, and 38, 39, Figs. 

 32 34). At Station 34 there was 

 found a cold intermediate layer, with 

 a minimum temperature of 0.45 C. 

 at 50 metres. The same layer was 

 also observed at Stat. 35, but not so 

 cold (minimum = 0.07 C. at 50 me- 

 tres). This was evidently the typical 

 cold intermediate layer of the ice- 

 covered North Polar seas. At Stat. 30, 



333231 



13 m u is viii.12 



3293 #3302 



100 



Fig. 32. Section across the shelf and the 

 submerged channel north-north-east of Hin- 



lopen Strait, from Verlegen Hook to Stat. 35, outside Hinlopen Strait, the top layers 



Aug. 13, 1912 (see Fig. i). Scales same as were ^ and . wefe evidend 



in Figs. 11-13- 



the same kind of cold water, but there 



the minimum temperature (- i.oC.) was at the surface (Fig. 33). At Stat. 

 20 (Fig. 14) there was also a cold intermediate layer, with a minimum of 

 0.59 C. at 50 metres, but this station was on the edge of the shelf and 

 nearer the region of the North Polar Current; it was in the drifting ice. 

 At other times much lower temperatures were observed at this station 

 and Station 19 only a short distance off (see Table I). 



The vertical distribution of temperature and salinity in the northern fjords, 

 Wood Bay and Wijde Bay (Figs. 27 & 28), is, on the whole, very different 

 from what was observed on the shelf to the north, outside these fjords. 

 The upper layers, at the surface and at 20 metres, sometimes even at 

 50 metres, are much warmer in the fjords than over the shelf outside, 

 while the deeper layers, below 50 metres, are very much colder in the 

 fjords than outside (see Figs. 4- 6). On the whole, the temperature of the 

 fjords decreases rapidly from the surface downwards towards the bottom, 



