MEMORANDUM 



ON 



INVESTIGATIONS IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN AND 

 PROGRAMME FOR SAME 



BY • 



0. PETTERSSON C. F. DRECHSEL 



VICE-PRESIDENT GENERAL SECRETARY 



For a long period of years, measurements of the temperature and salinity of 

 the surface water of the Atlantic Ocean have been carried out by means of route 

 steamers and other vessels traversing these waters. 



The study of the sea in more modern times has, however, proved the necess- 

 ity of systematically conducted investigations, both of hydrographical and biological 

 character, not only at the surface, but also in deep water, and has generally 

 shown the importance of such investigations carried out in the Atlantic Ocean, not 

 only for the knowledge of the Atlantic itself, but also for the understanding of 

 many hydrographical and biological conditions in neighbouring waters. 



Such systematic hydrographical and biological investigation of the whole of 

 the Atlantic Ocean must, therefore, be regarded as one of the most important scientific 

 and practical tasks of the future. It is, however, an undertaking of so great magni- 

 tude, that it would be premature to lay down at present a plan fully worked out 

 in all its details. Our knowledge is as yet too incomplete to permit of this being 

 done. The proposals which were laid before the Geographers' Congresses in Geneva 

 and Rome by Pettersson, Schott and Drechsel, and which received the recom- 

 mendation of these assemblies, were directed towards the institution of synoptical 

 reconnaisances at different seasons of the year, from the upper water layers 

 down to a depth of about 1000 M., in which the food fishes and the plankton 

 organisms live, and where the reciprocal interchange of heat between sea and 

 atmosphere takes place. In addition, hydrographical deep water soundings should 

 be undertaken at certain representative stations. 



