INTRODUCTORY^ 



1 o gain a general view of the circulation of the waters, and the distribution 

 of the plant and animal forms of life, in the north eastern part of the Atlantic 

 Ocean, we must first of all consider the bathymétrie features and the topography 

 of the bottom of the sea 2. 



There is a deep region, the Norwegian Sea and the Polar Basin, surrounded Bathymétrie 

 by coastal banks, which extend in the north-east to the submarine plateau of 

 the Barents Sea, and form to the east, the Norwegian coastal bank "Havbroen", 

 and in the south, the still shallower North Sea plateau. The North Sea plateau 

 is furrowed by a deeper channel, the so-called "Norwegian Channel", which permits 

 of the communication of the deeper water-layers of the Norwegian Sea with the 

 Baltic through the Skager Rak and Kattegat (Fig. i, p. III). 



The eastern coastal banks of the Norwegian Sea extend from the entrance of Topography 

 the Polar Basin, N. W. from Spitzbergen, along the Norwegian coast and north 

 from the North Sea and Shetland Isles, as a submarine ridge (Wyville Thomson 

 Ridge) as far as the Faeroes, and from these islands to Iceland (Fseroe-Iceland 

 banks). The large Icelandic submarine plateau is connected with the Greenland 

 coastal plateau by an elevation of the sea-bed in Denmark Strait. These barriers 

 cut off the deeper regions of the Norwegian Sea from those of the Atlantic Ocean, 

 at a depth of about 400 — 500 m. 



The area of the deeper regions of the Norwegian Sea, south Area 



of 80° N. L., is about 2,ooo,cxxi □ kilometer 



The area of the shallower coastal region^, is about 2,600,000 □ — 



the Barents Sea and White Sea with about 1,500,000 D — 



the Norwegian coastal banks, "Havbroen" 180,000 □ — 



the North Sea with the Belts 600,000 d — 



the Baltic 360,000 D — 



Consisting of 



' The Introduction has been translated from the German by H. M. Kyle. 



2 Reference may be made to the bathymétrie chart (Fig. i) and to the recently pubUshed paper 

 by O. Krümmel: Die deutschen Meere im Rahmen der internationalen Meeresforschung, .\ugust 1904. 



3 The topography of this region of the shallower banks, which borders the deeper region of 

 the Norwegian Sea, has been described in detail in the recent work of the Director of the Central 

 Laboratory: "The batliymetrical features of the North Polar Seas with a discussion of the continental 

 shelves and previous oscillations of the shore-Une". The North Polar Expedition 1893—1896, edited 

 by F. Nansen. Vol. IV. Christiania, 1904. 



