22 
During the transport towards the north along the coast of Green- 
land the ice melts by degrees owing to the contact with the warm 
atlantic water and, during the summer, owing to the influence. 
of the sun, but the cold and comparatively fresh melting-water 
moves continually northwards and keep the upper strata down to 
about 200 m on a temperature of 0? or still lower. Over the 
banks this cold and brackish water reaches the bottom. Later in 
the summer the influence of the sun will be so powerful that 
the cold stratum diminishes considerably, and at this season it 
does not reach 'the bottom on Store Hellefiskebanke which may 
then have a comparatively high bottom-temperature. Though the 
current is mainly following the coast its effects are traced far 
out in the Davis Strait. If we follow a line from the south towards 
the north and through the middle part of the Davis Strait we will 
find, that the temperature as well as the salinity of the surface 
water is decreasing (comp. p. 26 and 47). 
Ås to the inlets of that part of the west coast which is south 
of the submarine ridge we may distinguish between two different 
types: 1. Fjords, the inner, deep basin of which is separated from 
the open sea by a barrier in the mouth of the fjord, where the 
water is comparatively shallow. This barrier constitutes a stoppage 
for the warm atlantic water which cannot pass from the deeper 
strata of the Davis Strait into the basin of the fjord. Here we find, 
therefore, very cold water from the surface to the bottom, except 
in the uppermost layers when these are warmed up by the rays 
of the sun. — 2. Fjords, the entrance of which is sufficiently deep 
aS to allow the atlantic water of the Davis Strait to pass into the 
inner parts of the fjord. In such fjords we find a cold and rather 
brackish upper stratum as in the polar current outside, and be- 
low this cold water the same temperature and salinity as in the 
deep layers of the Davis Strait, i. e. more than 3? C and 34.5 ”/0o 
respectively. 
North of the submarine ridge, in the Disco Bay and Umanak 
Fjord, the facts are very nearly as in the open Baffin Bay, i. e., 
Setting aside the uppermost layers, directly warmed by the sun, 
there is an upper Stratum, about 200 m, with low, partly negat- 
ive temperatures and a salinity below 34 9/40. Below this stratum 
the temperature is about + 1? and the salinity more than 34 /00. 
