SI 2' R. BROWN ON THE NATURE OF THE 



the " Sunsliine " and the *' Moonshine," notes that, in the strait 

 which now bears his name, " the water was very blacke and 

 *' thicke, like unto a filthy standing pool."* More modern 

 voyagers have more equally noted the phenomenon, but without 

 giving any explanation, and it is tlie object of this paper to 

 endeavour to fill up that blank in the physical geography of the 

 sea. In the year 1861 I made a voyage to the seas in the vicinity 

 of Spitzbergen and the dreary island of Jan Mayen, and sub- 

 sequently a much more extended one through Davis Strait 

 to the head of Baffin's Bay, and along the shores of the Arctic 

 Regions lying on the western side of the former gulf, during 

 which I had abundant opportunities of observing the nature 

 of this discoloration. At that period I arrived at the conclusions 

 which I am now about to promulgate. In the course of the 

 past summer [1867] I again made an expedition to Danish Green- 

 land, passing several weeks on the outward and homeward pass- 

 ages in portions of the seas mentioned, during which time I had 

 an opportunity of confirming the observations I had made six 

 years previously, so that I consider I am justified in bringing my 

 researches, so far as they have gone, before the Botanical Society. 



1. Appearance and Geographical Descnption of the discoloured 

 Portions of the Arctic Sea, 



The colour of the Greenland Sea varies from ultramarine blue 

 to olive-green, and from the most pure transparency to striking 

 opacity, and these changes are not transitory but permanent.f 

 Scoresby, who sailed during his whaling voyages very extensively 

 over the Arctic Sea, considered that in the " Greenland Sea " of 

 the Dutch — the " Old Greenland " of the English — this discoloured 

 water formed perhaps one-fourth part of the surface between the 

 parrallels of 74° and 80° North latitude. It is liable, he remarked, 

 to alterations in its position from the action of the current, but 

 still it is always renewed near certain localities year after year. 

 Often it constitutes long bands or streams lying north and south, 

 or N.E. and S.W., but of very variable dimensions. " Sometimes 

 ^' I have seen it extend two or three degrees of latitude in length, 

 *' and from a few miles to ten or fifteen leagues in breadth. It 

 ^' occurs very commonly about the meridian of London in high 

 " latitudes. In the year 1817 the sea was found to be of a blue 

 " colour and transj)arent all the way from 12° East, in the parallel 

 *' of 74° or 75° N.E., to the longitude of 0° 13' East in the same 

 " parallel. It then became green and less transparent ; the colour 

 *' was nearly grass-green, with a shade of black. Sometimes the 

 *' transition between the green and blue waters is progressive, 

 ** passing through the intermediate in the space of three or four 

 ** leagues ; in others it is so sudden that the line of separation is 

 *' seen like the rippling of a current ; and the two qualities of the 



* The First Voyage of M. lohn Dauis vndertaken in June 1585, (Hak- 

 luyt's Collection.) 



t Scoresby, " Arctic Regions," i., 175. 



