362 PETTEESSOiS', SIBEEIAK SEA. 



the abuudant supply of fresh water from the rivers in summer 

 almost as much as that of the Kära Sea; consequently there 

 is no tendency on either side to encroach upon the other. 



The sections VI — IX on plate 25, which represent the 

 conformation of the sea along the course of the Vega, also 

 give a transverse section of the fresh-water currents from the 

 rivers outside the river-mouths. 



A closer inspection of the temperature, the saltness and 

 likewise of the change of eolour in the water shows that the 

 main mäss of the river- water is invariably found at a consid- 

 erable distance to the east of the mouth of the river, from 

 which it originates. If we choose for example the section VII, 

 which represents the state of the sea outside the mouths of 

 the Anabara, the Lena and the Jana rivers, we find that the 

 head mäss of the fresh water from the Lena fiows between 

 the 130^^ and the 136''^ degree Long. E. G., i. e. 3 longitudinal 

 degrees east of the embouchure of the river. Here the saltness 

 at the surface sunk to only 0.49 or O.91 p. c. and the water 

 was clay-coloured. A similar remark is due also to the w^aters 

 emerging from the Anabara and Jana-rivers. 



At some distance to the tcest of the "warm and fresh river- 

 water there will invariabl}^ also be found a layer of cold salt 

 water at the bottom of the sea. This is, as already mentioned, 

 an indraught of arctic water from the north, caused by the 

 mechanic reaction of the outflow of the rivers. 



The same influence of the earths rotation, which forces 

 the upper-current to take an easterl}^ direction, also directs 

 the under-current to the west. The existence of such an 

 under-current of salt water, cooled unto its. freeziug-point, 

 €xplains to us the stränge phenomenon, that the expedition 

 ver}^ often liad to struggle with pack-ice or foundered ice-floes 

 in the immediate vicinity of the warm river-water, as for ex. 

 €ast of the Chatanga bay and the Lena delta. In such places 

 väst masses of drifting ice-floes or massive foundered iceblocks 

 were found in the midst of almost fresh fiowing river-water 

 of relatively high temperature. The warm water could only 

 attack the superficial layers of the ice, which as a rule were 

 found to be much corroded, while its bulk was protected from 

 melting by the cold water at the base. Lieutenant Bove^ 



* ^Lingua di ghiaccio. — La corrente del Katanga aveva accumulato, 

 lungo il suo margine, una longa e compatta lingua di vecchi ghiacci tra i 

 quali passammo con qnalche difficoltä e con gravi pericoli per il timone e 

 Velica.» 



