KONGL. SV. VET, AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAH. BAND. 20. N:0 5. 27 



Anabar, Olenek, Lena, Jaiia, Indigirka, Alasei, and Kolyma are discharged into the 

 Arctic Sea and during the summer produce comparatively warm currents of water along 

 the coast; on the eastern side, on the contrary, no large river issues into the sea. 

 Accordingly, no coast currents conducive to the forming of an ice-free sea occur here, 

 as is the case along the whole coast from the White Sea to the Kolyma. » ^) Detailed 

 statements on the saltness of the water in the Siberian Arctic Sea will be had, when 

 the hydrographical observations regularly made during the Vega expedition shall have 

 been worked out. I have only to add here, that according to these observations the 

 specific gravity of the sea- water at the surface at the dredging-places between Cape Chelyu- 

 skin and Cape Baranow never exceeded l,OL'.'i, and generally kept at about l,oi, i. e. did 

 not even reach the gravity corresponding to a mixture of one part of sea-water with 

 two parts of river-water. Off the Lena for instance, the specific gravity amounted only 

 to from 1,0040 to 1,0046, i. e. to about as much as that of the water in the southern 

 part of the Botnic Bay ^). 



It is certainly quite true that in the eastern part of the Kara Sea and in the 

 western part of the Siberian Sea the salinity of the water increases with the depth, 

 as has been stated both by Nobdenskiold and Stuxbekg in their above-mentioned works. 

 Observations made during the Vega expedition are quite conclusive on this point; some 

 of them have been set forth by Stuxberg. But on examining the figures contained in 

 the dredging journal of the Vega, it will be clearly seen that at many places from the 

 surface down to that depth where algae grow in the greatest number in the Arctic Sea 

 proper, the salinity of the water is comparatively slight, essentially less than in many 

 other seas and in the greater part of the Arctic Sea itself. The following figures out 

 of the journal just mentioned may serve to prove this fact ^). 



Depth in Spec, gravity of the water 

 Lat. Long. . .K ^ ,u u .. 



° latnoms. at the bottom. 



74° 52' N. 85° 8' E. 6 l.ons. 



73° 41' » 114° 58' » 6 l,oi5i. 



74° 9' » 130° 20' » 15 l,oo50. 



74° 4' » 135° 38' » 16 l,om. 



73° 53' » 138° 0' » 12 l,oi65. 



73° 40' » 140° 16' » 4 l,oi20. 



73° 2' » 142° 36' » 9 l,oi45. 



73° 5' » 144° 20' » 8 1,0144. 



72° 20' » 153° 30' » 10 1,0202. 



71° 39' » 157° 15' » 10 1,0198. 



These figures prove that in the eastern part of the Kara Sea and still more in 

 the western part of the Siberian Sea, namely the extensive stretch between the mouths 

 of the Chatanga and the Kolyma, the sea-water at the coast at the depth of about 



1) NoRDENSKioLD, Vega-exp. 1, p. 29 and 154 — 155. 



2) Cp. Stuxberg, Vega-exp. 1, p. 684—687 and 694 

 *) Cp. Stuxberg, Vega-exp. 1, p. 684 — 687. 



