p 



NO. 4 TEMPERATURE VARIATIONS IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC 



II 



Gulf Stream (see pis. i to 14). Westerly of the "wedge" one 

 again finds the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream up to the neigh- 

 borhood of the Continental Shelf of America, where the cold waters 

 coming down from the north again produce their influence. For 

 a more thorough understanding of the distribution of temperature 

 of the surface of the ocean in February from 1898 to 1910 in the 

 regions we have investigated (see fig. 5) we have attempted to 

 draw a chart of the currents of the surface water in these parts of 



Figure 4. Distribution of drift ice and icebergs in the spring of 1903 that 

 was very rich in ice, according to Schott's Geography of the Atlantic Ocean. 



the ocean. For this purpose other investigations, particularly those 

 of the Michael Sars expedition of the year 1910 have been em- 

 ployed. Our current chart (fig. 6) makes no pretension to do 

 more than to sketch roughly the ocean current circuit in its princi- 

 pal features. The progress of the water masses through the ocean 

 does not proceed by any such simple lines as these schematic cur- 

 rent charts represent. It proceeds much more by monster moving 

 eddy currents on the surface of the ocean and in the deeper layers. 

 These whirlpools are in a great measure the cause of the extraor- 



