VEGA-EXVEDITIONENS VETENSKAPLIGA AliBETEN. '^'*-* 



As may be seen from the hydrographic map [plate 24] a 

 channel of deep water extends along the west side of the 

 Waigatch island and the southern part of Novaya Zemlya, 

 containing at its bottom water of about the same saltness and 

 teraperatnre as the deep western basin of the Kära Sea. The 

 question naturally arises, if there be any communication be- 

 tween the cold and salt water at the bottom of the sea, east 

 and west of the Novaya Zemlya and Waigatch Islands. The 

 only way, in which this might take place would be through 

 the Kära strait, since the Yngor Shar is not deep enough to 

 allow any intercourse between the deeper strata. Besides, 

 direct observations show, that the water at the bottom of the 

 Yugor strait has a temperature above zero. 



Yngor Shar 2°'' Angust 1875. 



Depth. Temperature. Saltness [anal. by Ekman]. 



O m. + 4°.2 C 2.65 p. c. 



5.3 m. -^ 1°.7 C 



35 m. (bottom) + 0°.6 C 3.24 p. c. 



In want of direct determinations of the saltness and tem- 

 perature of the bottom-strata in the Kära strait, I can only 

 try to settle this question by referring to the discovery of 

 Liitke,^ that a stream of cold w'ater is flowing constantly 

 from the Kära strait northward aloug the western coast of 

 Novaya Zemlya. Middendorff writes:- 



»An die Westkiiste Novaja Semlä's prallt der Golfström 

 nicht unmittelbar an, sondern er wird von dem Lande durch 

 einen beispielsweise 60 nautische Meilen breiten Klistenstreif 

 kalten Wassers (wir beobachteten 6°.i, bis 4°'/t>) geschieden, 

 welches einer tiefen Thalfurche im Meeresgrunde entspricht, 

 von der wenigstens die Siidhälfte Nowaja Semlcä\s nmgiirtet 

 wird.;> 



Stränge to say, the Vega-observations from the 29^'' and 

 30*'' July, 1878, seem to bear ont c^uite an opposite result. In 

 the following table the observations of the Vega-expedition 

 from the 25'^'' J^^l.y, the day of departure from Magerce, until 

 the SO**" July, when she anchored at Chabarova in the Yugor 

 strait, are enumerated. 



' Viermalige Reise durch das nördliche Eismeer. 



■^ Der Golf-strom ostwiirts vom Nordkap, Geogr. Mitth. 1871. At the 

 western side of this deep-water channel, Middendorf found the tempera- 

 ture at the bottom to be + O'. 8 ; at the eastern (at Kostin Schar) = -f 2°. 4 R. 



