358 Alf Trolle. 



another geographically but lie on different sides of the edge of the 

 Continental Shelf. It is over this, that the great changes occur. 



At all the stations VI, LXXVIIl, VII, IX the distribution is 

 in the main the same, namely, first, temperature decreasing to a min- 

 imum, then increasing to a maximum and below this again slightly 

 decreasing, whilst the salinity increases to a maximum and there- 

 after remains almost unchanged. 



This distribution is a consequence of the position of the stations 

 in the south-going Polar Current, which flows down over the Con- 

 tinental Shelf and the depth of which (when the boundary, as men- 

 tioned above, is placed at the 34 p. m. isohaline) increases from 200 

 m., eastern part, to ca. 300 m., western part, whilst the water in 

 the greater depths below the Polar Current has a temperature of ca. 

 + 0.5° and a salinity of ca. 34.87 p. m. 



Remarks on Sect. II. (Plan XVI). 



The section passes through the stations LXXIIl, LXXV, LXXVI 

 and LXXVI I from 1908. 



Its principal direction is N. N. E. to S. S. W., which is almost 

 at right angles to Sect. I and parallel with the coast and the direc- 

 tion of the Polar Current. 



The stations lie in the region of the coastal water, where the stream 

 is mainly due to tides, whilst there is no marked, south-going current, 

 such as is found further east out over the Continental Shelf. 



The hydrographical conditions are essentially as in the western 

 part of the Polar Current, that is, the uppermost layer is much cooled 

 down and consists of Polar Current water, which comes from the 

 northernmost part of the Current down over the Polar Sea, and in the 

 deeper parts below a depth of ca. 300 m. there is water of ca. + 0.5° 

 temperature and ca. 34.85 p. m. salinity. 



This warm bottom-layer has the same origin, in my opinion, as 

 the warm intermediate layer (the already mentioned Ryder layer) 

 in the eastern part of the Polar Current, which is pressed down to- 

 wards the bottom by the overlying Polar Current in its western pars 

 and was found here (see Sect. I) at the same depth and with almost 

 the same temperature and salinity as the bottom-water of the coastal 

 water. 



The course of the isopykns shows, that this water had the same 

 movement towards the south as the overlying cold water. Its tem- 

 perature and salinity were a little lower than those of the inter- 

 mediate layer. This was probably caused by a slight admixture 

 with Polar Current water further north, where it may be suspected 

 to have come in along the supposed, submarine ridge Spitzbergen — 

 N. E. Greenland as an offshoot from the deeper layer of the Gulf 

 Stream at Spitzbergen. 



