4^8 FARTHEST NORTH 



These temperatures of the water are in many re- 

 spects remarkable. In the first place, the temperature 

 falls, as will be seen, from the surface downward to a 

 depth of So metres, after which it rises to 280 metres, 

 falls again at 300 metres, then rises again at 326 metres, 

 where it was +0.49'; then falls to rise again at 450 

 metres, then falls steadily down to 2000 metres, to rise 

 once more slowly at the bottom. Similar risings and 

 fallings were to be found in almost all the series of tem- 

 peratures taken, and the variations from one month to 

 another were so small that at the respective depths they 

 often merely amounted to the two-hundredth part of a 

 degree. Occasionally the temperature of the warm strata 

 mounted even higher than mentioned here. Thus on 

 October 17th at 300 metres it was +0.85°, at 350 metres 

 + 0.76°, at 400 metres +0.78, and at 500 metres +0.62", 

 after which it sank evenly, until, towards the bottom, it 

 again rose as before. 



We had not expected to meet with much bird life in 

 these desolate regions. Our surprise, therefore, was not 

 small when on Whitsunday, May 1 3th, a gull paid us a 

 visit. After that date we regularly saw birds of different 

 kinds in our vicinity till at last it became a daily occur- 

 rence, to which we did not pay any particular attention. 

 For the most part they were ice mews {Lartis ebiirneus)y 

 kittiwakes [Rissa ti'idactyla), fulmars {Proccllaria glacialis)^ 

 and now and then a blue gull {L. g/aucKs), a herring gull 

 (Z. argentatus {), or a black guillemot {Uria gryiie); once 



