ARCTIC OCEANOGRAPHY 5 



Josef Land, even of 676 meters). They seem to indicate that there 

 is here a broad depression in the continental shelf (PI. I).^ 



North of Europe the continental shelf extends from the coast of 

 Novaya Zemlya, Russia, the Kola Peninsula, and Norway far north 

 beyond Franz Josef Land and Spitsbergen, and these island groups 

 are situated on it. In Barents Sea this shelf is traversed by a system 

 of submarine valleys with depths of as much as 400 meters or more. 

 These valleys seem to be of the same kind as the depressions on the 

 shelf east and northeast of Novaya Zemlya. 



Judging from the soundings taken in the sea to the northeast 

 and north of Franz Josef Land during the expedition in the St. Anna 

 (1913), the surface of the shelf is there very uneven, with deep sub- 

 marine fiords, and the shelf has probably no very wide extension in 

 these directions. A sounding of 1161 meters without bottom was 

 taken less than 100 kilometers to the northeast of the island group, 

 while on the other hand 219 meters were sounded something like 

 125 kilometers north-northeast of the northernmost island; and other 

 soundings of 695, of 201, and of 256 meters respectively were taken 

 at similar distances north of this island. Between Franz Josef Land 

 and Spitsbergen there is a depression or submarine channel in the 

 shelf probably coming from the north with depths of 421 meters and 

 probably more. North of Spitsbergen the shelf has no great extension, 

 being 50 to 70 kilometers broad, and its surface is very uneven, being 

 traversed by submarine fiords. 



The extension of the continental shelf north of Greenland is 

 unknown except for a sounding of 165 meters 70 kilometers off shore. 

 It may be fairly broad if the conditions are similar to those off the 

 northeastern coast of Greenland, where the shelf has a width of more 

 than 200 kilometers and is traversed by submarine fiords. 



North of Grant Land (Ellesmere Island) Peary took a series 

 of soundings indicating that the surface of the shelf may be uneven 

 in this region. About 80 kilometers from land he sounded 201 meters, 

 and about 150 kilometers from land as much as 1509 meters, but 

 about 250 kilometers from land he sounded 567 meters, and a short 

 distance farther north 1280 meters without bottom. If the depths of 

 these soundings be correct, they seem to indicate a very irregular 

 shape of the continental shelf in this region: it may be traversed by 

 deep submarine fiords or there may be deep embayments in its edge. 



North of Canada the continental shelf extends for a great distance, 

 embracing the entire Arctic Archipelago; but how far it continues to 

 the north of the northernmost islands hitherto discovered is entirely 

 unknown. It seems hardly probable that the large islands discovered 

 by Captain Otto Sverdrup in 1900 (Axel Heiberg Island, Ellef and 



2 From the drift of the St. Anna W. J. Wiese deduces the probability of land in about 79° N. and 

 82° E. (shown on PI. I), possibly the western border of Northern Land {Ergdnzungsheft No. 188 zn 

 Petermantis Mitt., 1925, pp. 57-58 and PI. 2, Fig. 4). — Edit. Note. 



