1901] The Hydrogråphy of the North Ocean. 2 5 



Western winds were pressing ice against the northern part of the 

 land, and we could not get around till August 17th, wlieh the 

 Kara Sea was found op en. 



On Sept. 8th, we again passed the north end of Novaja Semlja, 

 and then sailed close up to Franz Josef Land without seeing a bit 

 of drift ice." 



Of the plankton of the summer of 1898 Homer and Schatj- 

 dinn write (7, p. 54): „Wir neigen zu der Ansicht, dass die Mehr- 

 zahl der Planktonfånge mehr Golfstrom-Charakter, jedenfalls keinen 

 echten Polarstrom-Charakter trågt." Prof. P. T. Cleve, who lias 

 worked out the plankton of the Swedish expedition of 1898, gives 

 a minute discription of the plankton elements in the eastern part 

 of the North Ocean. Cleve writes (1, p. 13): 



„Tt folio ws from the above analysis that in the year 1898 the 

 styliplankton 1 )) was by far more richly represented than in the two 

 preceding years." 



Thus there are much concordant evidence that the expansion 

 of the Gulf Stream in 1898 was unusual, andits energy of warmth 

 very large. 



Pettersson and Ekman write (6, p. 7): ,,Bekanntlich hat der 

 Ftihrer der danischen Expedition nach Grønland, C. Ryder, in 1891 

 aus dem Yorhandensein einer warmeren Wasserschicht am Abhang 

 der Kiistenbanke von Ostgronland gefolgert, class eine Ablenkung 

 des warmen Spitsbergenstromes nach Westen und Siidwesten in 

 hoheren Breiten stattfindet. Anderseits hat Nansen in dem tiefen 

 Polarmeer in etwa 200 bis 1000 Meter Tiefe eine intermediare 

 Wasserschicht von hoherer Temperatur (bis + 0°,5 und + 0°,8 C.) 

 angetroffen, worin er die letzte Spur dieses Zweiges des Golfstromes 

 zu tinden glaubt." 



In tliis connection I should mention that Capt. Johannesen 

 in 1897 (July 23th) at 76° 56' N., 2° 35' E. found a tempera- 

 ture 5°,5 C. and salinity 35,15 (tab. Y). It is, however, impos- 

 sible to say whether this observation was tåken in a real branch 

 of the Gulf Stream or in an isolated spot corresponding to that 

 which was pointed out by prof. Mohn in August 1878 at 79° 59' 

 N., 5° 40' E. 



~ l ) Temperate oceanic species. 



