VEGA-EXPEDITIONENS VETENSKAPLIGA AHBETEM <i2"> 



1) because the heat, which passes över from T to T' is latent, 

 and 



2) because its influence is localized to those parts of the ocean, 

 where the arctic current pours its ice-masses into the warm 

 stream. 



It has long since attracted the attention of hydrographers, 

 that the Gulf- stream increases considerably after every com- 

 bat with the arctic current, although the temperature of 

 its water diminishes. According to Mr. Findlay* and- Dr. 

 Carpenter- the original stream from the Gulf of Mexico 

 and the Florida strait can hardly be recognized in the great 

 Atlantic current, which sweeps the coasts of Europé. A glance 

 at the maps in the Geogr. Mitth. of Pe term ann representing 

 the Gulf-stream in summer and winter convinces us at once of 

 the remarkable influence of the seasons upon its course. In 

 winter, when the supply of cold water from the arctic current 

 is reduced to its minimum, the water of the Gulf-stream is 

 limited to a narrower space than in summer. Colding^ has 

 called special attention to the fact, that the Gulf-stream takes 

 a more northerly direction, whenever the influence of the 

 arctic current diminishes. Thus it may be possible, that it 

 reaches farther to the East in winter, when it is unimpaired 

 by the arctic ice-masses, than in summer. This would be the 

 only plausible explanation of the observations cited by Mid- 

 dendorff* and Petermann,-^ according to which the winter 

 climate of the northern part of Novaya Zemlya and the Tai- 

 mur peninsula is milder than that of Siberia. For, as I 

 intend to show in the next paper from the observations of 

 the Vega-expedition, there is scarcely to be found, from a 

 hydrographic point of vicAV, any direct signs of the influence 

 of the warm water of the Gulf-stream upon the sea north of 

 the Taimur peninsula and Cape Tcheljuskin in summer time. 



» Proceed. R. G. S. XIII. 



^ Ocean circulation, Conteinp. Review, 187ö. 



3 1. c. 



* Der Golfström, Geogr. Mitth. 1870. 



•"' Der Golfström ostwärts vom Nordkap, Geogr. ]\Iitth. 1871. 



