232 K. STEPHENSEN. 
“The “Tjalfe” expedition of 1909 encountered, in certain fjords of 
western Greenland, entirely different conditions. Close to the surface, 
there was the same typical cold surface layer of the polar current, with 
minimal, negative temperature at abt. 50—100 metres depth; below 
this, however, from 300—500 metres, was a thick layer with tempera- 
ture from 2° to 3,3° C., and fairly high salinity (over 34 °/9)). We have 
thus, in these fjords, a water layer entirely similar in character to that 
which is found off the coast beneath the polar current, and which fills 
the whole of the deeper portions of Davis Strait. The reason of this 
doubtless lies in the fact that the mouths of these fjords are so deep as to 
permit direct inflow of the warm lower layer from the Davis Strait. 
“It would thus be an interesting task for a zoologist to investigate 
the fauna of these fjords, the hydrographical conditions of which are 
so distinctly opposed to those found in most of the Greenland fjords, 
of which Northern Stromfjord may be taken as the type. There is little 
room for doubt that the deeper portions, with their high temperature 
and salinity, have a different fauna, and a comparison of this with the 
corresponding deep-water fauna of Northern Stromfjord should lead to 
interesting results, as regards the influence exerted by hydrographieal 
conditions on the composition of the fauna. The deeper region of the 
Davis Strait has, it will be remembered, been investigated by several 
expeditions (“Fylla”’, “Ingolf” etc.); its ramifications, however, into 
certain fjords of southern Greenland, present a field hitherto entirely 
untouched, at least as regards the lower animal life; the “Tjalfe” expe- 
dition having been exclusively concerned with hydrographical condi- 
tions, and the distribution of the larger species of fish. Investigation 
of the shallower parts of the same fjords, covered as they are by polar 
water, will presumably reveal a fauna of the usual arctic type. 
“Two fjords which would appear particularly suited to investi- 
gations of this nature are the Kvanefjord, south of Frederikshaab, and 
Bredefjord, north of Julianehaab. On account of the ice, Kvanefjord 
should be taken first, as the channel of Torsukatak, leading to Brede- 
fjord, will hardly be navigable before the commencement of July. 
“The work in Kvanefjord could probably be commenced in June, 
or possibly even earlier. The great depths, down to 500 metres, with 
the “warm” water, extend far in, almost to the base of the fjord; in 1909, 
a temperature of 3,07° C. was noted at 500 metres depth, four miles 
from the glacier there. 
“Bredefjord is deepest in its western part, where in places as much 
as 700 m. of water may be found; the warm bottom water, however, 
extends throughout the whole of the fjord, and into the adjacent fjords 
of Tunugdliarfik and Skovfjord. This extended system of fjords should 
furnish more than sufficient work to occupy the months of July and 
August possibly also September.” 
The expedition consisted, besides the present writer, of a young 
