20 



0. Nordgaard. 



No. 8 



A high salinity and great homogeneousness in the water are 

 characteristic not only of the West Finmark coast sea towards the 

 end of the winter; the same may just as well be said about the 

 coast sea of East Finmark. I shall only allege a few series of 

 observations. 



Vs 1899. Nordkyn. 



71^ 8' N. 

 27° 42' E. 



Vs 1899. 



Vardo. 

 70° 24',5 N. 

 3P 28' E. 



Depth in 



Temp. C.o 



Salinity 



Depth in 



Temp. C.o 



Salinity 



metres. 





Voo. 



metres. 





%o- 







1,9 



34,60 







2,0 



34,72 



20 



2,05 



» 



20 



1,9 



34,65 



50 



2,05 





50 



1,95 





bottom 53 







80 

 100 



)5 



n 





■ 





150 



2,25 











200 













bottom (225) 







When the water layers are so homogeneous as indicated by 

 the above observations, the vertical currents are quite free to level 

 out the temperature. Thus the 200 metres deep at Vardø must in 

 a much higher degree be influenced by the conditions of the atmo- 

 sphere than the corresponding deep for instance in the Vestfjord. 

 At the places where the ocean water covers the bottom, the latter 

 acts like a buffer to the vertical current, and the annual changes 

 do not go deeper than 200 — 250 m. 



A striking feature is also the uniformity of salinity, but, besi- 

 des, it is also striking bow high the latter is. In the coast sea 

 and in many of the northern fjords, salinity was thus towards the 

 end of 1899 34 — 35 Voo- This water must be thought to have been 

 produced thereby that the coast water in course of the winter is dilu- 

 ted with ocean water while the arrival of fresh water is reduced. 



IV. Some biological considerations founded on studies of the 

 natural conditions of tlie sea. 



Twenty years ago G. 0. Sårs wrote in the second annual re- 

 port of the Tromso Museum an interesting little paper entitled 

 "Some remarks on the character of the marine fauna of the north- 



