4 MARION AND GENERAL GREENE EXPEDITIONS 



ture observations at winter quarters and later in the nearby region of 

 Smith Sound. Also in August of the same year H. M. S. Valorous 

 returning home from Disko Island, Greenland, occupied three sta- 

 tions in the Labrador Sea, at which serial temperatures were secured, 

 surface to bottom. Carpenter (1887) found evidence of the follow- 

 ing : (a) A superheated surface layer in the Labrador Sea moving in 

 a northward direction; (h) a neutral intermediate layer 1,000 

 fathoms in thickness ; and {c) a cold bottom water of northern origin. 

 Carpenter's bottom temperatures of 1.44° C, and 1.11° C, are ap- 

 proximately a degree too low, which, no doubt overemphasized his 

 views of an Arctic influence. 



Baron Nordenskiold's expedition in the Sofa to Greenland in the 

 summer of 1883 afforded Dr. Axel Hamberg (1884) opportunity 

 to take a series of oceanographic stations along the west coast of 

 Greenland as far north as Cape York. Miller-Casella and Negretti 

 and Zambra thermometers recorded temperatures in tenths. Ham- 

 berg reported the presence of a north flowing current off west Green- 

 land and also pointed out that the Baffin Bay water column is 

 divided into three strata — a surface layer of polar water; a mid- 

 depth Avarm stratum; and, beneath, water with minimum tempera- 

 ture. Hamburg's survey, both from the accuracy of measurements 

 and scope, was the most important oceanographic investigation of 

 the northwestern North Atlantic uj) to that time. 



In the summers of 1884, 1886, and 1889 Lt. C. F. Wandel (later 

 Admiral) of the Royal Danish Navy, commanding the Fylla, car- 

 ried out in connection with fisheries investigations in west Green- 

 land waters a hydrographical survey. Six sections, extending out 

 across the shelf distances of 30-75 miles, were made along a front 

 from Godthaab to just north of Disko Island. A resume of the 

 Fylla''s survey indicated («) the Labrador current flowing southward 

 contributes Arctic water to the Labrador Sea; {h) the East Green- 

 land Current mixes with a current from the Atlantic along the west 

 coast of Greenland and gives off branches into the Labrador Sea ; 

 {c) the West Greenland Current continues northward as far as the 

 observations extended. In the light of subsequent investigations 

 Wandel's description of Arctic and Atlantic water entering the 

 Labrador Sea along the southwest coast of Greenland are surpris- 

 ingly true to prevailing fact. 



The Danish naval schooner Ingolf, during an oceanographic expe- 

 dition in command of Captain Wandel (later Admiral) of the FyUa, 

 reportedly visited the region of Davis Strait June 26 to July 26, 

 1895. Dr. Martin Knudsen, in charge of the hydrographic work, took 

 a total of 15 stations of serial temperatures and salinities. Knudsen 

 found {a) the warm subsurface water mass in the Labrador Sea is 

 brought there by an extension of tlie Irminger Current which curves 

 nortiiward around Cape Farewell; {h) the subsurface waters of the 

 Labrador Sea are colder than those of the same latitude in the 

 Denmark Sea because of the chilling effect of the Labrador Current. 

 Knudsen's observations of temperatures and salinities were much 

 more accurate than previous records, but the temperatures from 

 below 2,000 meters are in most cases about a degree too low, a fact 

 which has been noted by Helland-Hansen (1930). The salinity of 

 Llie water of the Labrador Sea below 3.000 meters averages close 



