154 FRIDTJOF NANSEN. 



of 35*30 °/oo which indicates a thick Stratum at Stat. 7, does 

 not reach Stat. 46. The stratum with sahnities above 3520 %o 

 tapers off northward, ending between Stats. 66 and 65, — etc. It 

 is a very noteworthy feature in the shape of these strata that 

 their upper boundaries are situated nearly horizontally, while 

 their lower boundaries rise towards the surface in a north- 

 ward direction. This indicates that chiefly the deeper strata of 

 the Gulf stream has been gradually intermixed with less saline 

 water. The isotherms have similar courses. In the deep water 

 the conditions are here as elsewhere more uniform. 



The sections I, H, and III prove that the temperature and 

 salinities of the water of the Gulf Stream has been dimished by 

 intermixture with other water chiefly in its lower strata, during 

 its northward course. But this cannot to any great extent be 

 due to intermixture with Coast Water during the summer, for 

 if so its temperature should not have been diminished, and be- 

 sides the coast water is then so light that an intermixture will 

 occur extremely slowly and only near the surface. During the 

 winter the coast water has a lov^^er temperature than the Gulf 

 Stream water, and is heavier than in the summer, and then 

 an intermixture may occur to a greater extent, and will gradu- 

 ally diminish the temperature and salinity of the Gulf Stream 

 northward. I believe, however, that the Gulf Stream water is 

 to a greater extent mixed with the water of the East Icelandic 

 Polar Current (see later). 



Section IV (Pis. 9, 14), from Norway to Bear Island, passes 

 across the eastern. North Cape branch of the Gulf Stream, the 

 upper strata of which is forced eastward by the Earth's rotation 

 as soon as the configuration of the Norwegian coast allows it. 

 This section gives a beautiful illustration of the horizontal and 

 vertical distribution of the salinity. We see the most saline 

 water of the Gulf Stream which has been least intermixed with 

 other water, forming a nucleus in the centre of the current. 

 Towards the south the salinity was regularly decreasing and the 



