Introduction. 



JJuring the Fram-Expedition 18931896 the deep North Polar Basin 

 was discovered. This basin was found to be filled with water of Atlantic 

 origin below a depth of 200 or 300 metres. According to our obser- 

 vations the salinity of this deep-water and bottom- water should be con- 

 siderably higher than that of the deep-water of the Norwegian Sea, and 

 its temperature was also higher. Our determinations of the salinity, or 

 rather the specific gravity, of the sea-water were, however, made chiefly 

 with the floating hydrometer, and this method is not sufficiently accurate. 

 As the knowledge of the accurate salinity of the deep-waters of the North 

 Polar Basin is of great importance in several interesting questions connected 

 with the configuration of the bottom and the circulation of the Northern 

 Seas, I had attempted to obtain new samples of the deep-water of the sea 

 north of Spitsbergen, in order to control our observations made during 

 the Fram-expedition. Three different expeditions had promised to do their 

 best to collect such samples, but had failed. I therefore decided to make 

 an attempt to go with my yacht Veslemoy to the sea north of Spits- 

 bergen in order to fetch some samples of the deep-water. 



It was my plan at the same time to try the practicability of making 

 exact measurements of the currents and movements of the water at the 

 different depths of the sea from a ship moored to the drifting ice. This 

 was a method of investigating the currents of the deep sea, which I had 

 recommended years ago, but had never yet had an opportunity of trying, 

 nor had anybody else done so. I also wished to investigate the waters 

 of some of the Spitsbergen fjords, and to examine other problems connected 

 with the Spitsbergen waters, which Professor HELLAND-HANSEN and I had 

 discussed in our paper, On the Sea West of Spitsbergen* [1912]. 



The crew of the Veslemoy consisted of four men; viz. two sailors 

 on deck, an engineer for the paraffine motor, and a steward. And then 



Vid.-Selsk. Skrifter. I. M.-N. Kl. 1915. No. 2. ' 1 



