86 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 70 



The Stavanger observations make a homogeneous series from the 

 year 1899 to 1905, and those for Narvik extend from 1905 to 1910. 

 It must be noted that there are some vacancies in the observations 

 so that the results found cannot pretend to absolute accuracy. 



We see that there is considerable similarity between these curves 

 for the Norwegian coast and the curves for Esbjerg in Denmark 

 and Ijmuiden in Holland, but the agreement with the curves of the 

 Baltic Sea is much less perfect, and the same must be said of the 

 agreement with the curve for the temperature difference in the 

 Atlantic Ocean as shown in figure 43, curve II. However, we find 

 in all the curves the same considerable maximum in 1903 and 

 depressions in the years 1902 and 1908. On the other hand, the 

 curve for Narvik shows a maximum in the year 1907, which we 

 have not found in the other curves, whereas the Dutch curves 

 and that for Esbjerg in 1906 show a maximum at a time when 

 the Narvik curve shows a high water-mark. It must be regarded as 

 important that one finds on the whole such similarity in the varia- 

 tions of the height of the water in regions so far removed from 

 one another. 



The rule which we have derived from what has been said is this : 

 If the temperature in February in the east fields of the Atlantic 

 Ocean compared with the middle fields (of 30° to 39° west longi- 

 tude) is uncommonly high, then the level of the water on the whole 

 for the entire year in the North Sea and especially in the Baltic 

 Sea will be uncommonly high. So also will be the temperature 

 of the air in February and in general for the year in Hamburg. 



We have spoken here of the difference in the temperatures of 

 the different fields of the Atlantic Ocean. One cannot draw the 

 conclusion from the absolute temperatures in one of the fields be- 

 cause an anomaly may exist over the whole ocean, as in the year 

 1904. If we examine, however, the curves for Liepe's temperature 

 anomaly station No. i (see fig. 43, III), which is a statio'n lying 

 further eastward than our fields and immediately at the mouth of 

 the English Channel near Ouessant, we find there better agreement 

 between the temperature variations and the height of the water ni 

 the East sea (see fig. 43, V and VI). The rule that a high sur- 

 face temperature at Liepe's Station i, as well as a high air tem- 

 perature in the northwest coast of middle Europe at Hamburg 

 in February, in general corresponds to a high level of the water in 

 the Baltic Sea during the year shows few exceptions. The expla- 

 nation is not difficult, and we shall later return to it more at length 



