VEGA- EXPEDITION ENS VETENSKAPLIGA ABBETEN. 



309 



Looality. 



Physioal conditions of tlie sample, etc. 



March 5 



Pitlekaj 



Drinking water obtained from a great 



blue ice-block 



D:o from old blue ice 



D:o » » " » 



Collected outside theharbourof Wisby 

 / Old bay-ice \ 



/ Ice from the polar drift-current ... \ 



/ Glacier ice floating upon the sea » 



] JJ:o » » a 5 ; 



Most of the above samples are representatives of the last 

 stage of the metainorphosis of the sea-ice. Ice of this kind 

 shows, according to the analyses in table 2, of this chapter, 

 quite another proportion between its chemical constituents 

 than sea-water. The amount of sulphates has increased enor- 

 mously in proportion to the chlorides. Therefore we must con- 

 clude, that sulphates of sodium and calcium will be carried 

 far away from the arctic ocean by the drift-ice. This fact 

 gives US the clue to the observations already mentioned, that 

 the percentage of sulphuric acid in the sea-water is slightly 

 variable. By Forchammer and recently by Mr. Schmelck,^ 

 hydrographer of the Norwegian expedition 1876 — 78, it was 

 ascertained, that the maximum amount of sulphuric acid in 

 the sea between Greenland and Norway is found soutJt, of the 

 polar circle. - To this fact we must also attribute the observa- 

 tions of Mr. Schmelck and of Prof. Ekman, that the per- 



1 Nyt Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne 1879. It is verv remarkable, 

 that Schmelck did not find iiny increase of the percentage of SO3 in that 

 part of the sea crossed by the great ice-current at the eastern coast of 

 Greenland. This shows, that the sea-ice does not part with its sulphates 

 before it is entirely liquefied. 



■^ In this part of the ocean, which is swept by the Gulf-stream, the last 

 produets of the original decomposition of the arctic sea-water by freezing 

 can still be discovered by chemical analysis, although these traces most 

 probably have tAvice crossed the Atlantic. 



