360 PETTERSSON, SIBERIAX SEA. 



of the ice caused by a warm under-ciirrent etc. . , biit solely 

 to the mechanical force of a violent tempest from the south 

 which had blown during 10 or 11 hours the day before. 



The only point on the route of the Vega, where we could 

 expect to trace the infliience of the Gulf-stream — if there 

 really should exist anything worthy of that name in the Sibe- 

 rian ocean — undisturbed by the effluvia from the rivers, 

 is the sea north and east of Cape Tcheljiiskin. The observa- 

 tions on the 19, 20, 21, 22°'^ August (see section V on plate 

 24) are somewhat scanty, but will nevertheless furnish a 

 reply to the cjuestion, as far as regards the adual condUions of 

 the sea at that season of tlie year. 



We are wont to attach the idea of a relatively warm and 

 salt surface-current of clear bluish coloured water with the 

 name of the Gulf-stream. None of these characteristics are 

 applicable to the sea, which borders on the northest point of 

 Asia. Its maximum saltness at the surface was 2.93 p. c. Its 

 temperature varied from + O^.s C to — O^^.s C and the colour of 

 its water was green. Now it is a well-proved truth, that the 

 last out-parts of the warm Atlantic water to the north must 

 not always be sought for at the surface. In very high latitudes 

 the isotherms of the warm water often take the shape of 

 closed curves, showing that the warm surface stream has 

 been partially inundated by arctic water, which contains less 

 of salt and therefore, notwithstanding its lower temperature, 

 can be lighter than the Atlantic w^ater between certain limits 

 of temperature. Thus, to cite one example of many. Professor 

 Molin, the leader of the Norwegian North-Atlantic expedition, 

 discovered an isolated warm spöt in the sea west of Spitz- 

 bergen at about 79° — 80° Lat. N. But the results of the deep- 

 soundings on the 2P* and 22°'^ August [section VJ convinces 

 US, that there exists no such phenomenon here. 



From a few metres below the surface and unto the bottom 

 the temperature of the water w^as — 1°.2 to — 1°.4 C. But if 

 there is no trace to be found of a Avarm current of Atlantic 

 water north of Cape Tcheljuskin in summer, it map still be 

 possible, that such a current exists there in winter. ^ 



^ See the last page of the preceding imj^er. Petermann has tried to 

 lind a connection between the direction of the ocean-currents in winter along 

 the north-eastern coast of Siberia and that of the Gulf-stream. »Der Golf- 

 .strom» Mitth. 1870. »Bemerkenswerth ist eine Thatsache in den Strömungs- 

 Beobachtuugen Wr ängels in Nordost-Sibirien. Bekanntlich gehen dort die 

 Strömungen im Frtihjahr und Sommer nach Westen, im Herbst und Winter 

 nach Osten, in der Richtung des Golfstromes^. 



