OF SEA-WATER IN THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE OCEAN. 
221 
— I owe most of the samples from this current to Colonel Schaffner, who took them on 
his expedition to Iceland and Greenland connected with the Northern Transatlantic Tele- 
graph. The quantities being too small to allow a complete analysis, I have only deter- 
mined the quantities of chlorine and sulphuric acid. I have, however, analyzed three 
other samples of water from this current taken by Captain Gram, who during many years 
commanded one of the Danish Government’s Greenland ships ; and from these three 
complete analyses I have deduced the coefficient 1-813, instead of 1-812, which is the 
mean coefficient of the whole ocean. Thus I have calculated the mean salinity of the 
East Greenland current to be 35-278*, while it is in the third region 35-391, and in the 
sea between Norway and Spitzbergen 35-347. These observations about the salinity of 
the current, connected with some other observations which will be afterwards discussed, 
make it highly probable that the East Greenland current is the returning Gulf-stream. 
At all events it is no polar current, which will easily be seen in comparing it with the 
Baffin’s Bay current with a salinity 33-281, or the water to the north of Spitzbergen 
with 33-623, or the Patagonian polar current, which runs along the west coast of South 
America, and has 33-966. Nor is it probable that it comes from the north shores of 
Siberia, where such a great number of powerful rivers bring a vast quantity of fresh 
water into the sea. Its salinity is so great that it even exceeds that of the South 
Atlantic Region, between 30° S. lat. and the line between the Cape of Good Hope and 
Cape Horn, whose salinity is only 35-038. 
Fifth Region, A. The Baffin's Bay and Davis Straits Begion. — The mean of eight 
complete analyses is 33-281, the maximum 34*414, the minimum 32-304. This region 
shows the very interesting fact that its salinity increases on passing from latitude 64° 
toward the North, being in 64° 32-926, in 67° 33-187, somewhat further to the North 
33-446, and in latitude 69° 33*598. This peculiarity is owing to the powerful current 
from the Parry Islands, which through different sounds passes into Baffin’s Bay, where 
it is mixed with the great quantity of fresh water that comes into the sea from the West 
Greenland glaciers. Had this fact been known before the sounds that connect the Parry 
Archipelago with Baffin’s Bay were discovered, it might have proved the existence of 
these sounds, because bays and inlets show quite the reverse ; the further we get into 
them the less saline the water becomes. 
Fifth Region, B. The Polar Sea between the North Cape in Norway and Spitzbergen . — 
I have eleven samples of water taken on the Swedish Spitzbergen Expedition by Pro- 
fessors Nordenskjold and Blomstrand, of which I have rejected one taken in one of 
the bays of Spitzbergen, and another belonging to the sea to the north of Spitzbergen. 
None of these analyses were complete, and I have only determined the quantity of 
chlorine and of sulphuric acid; and even the latter could in several instances not be 
determined, since the water had fermented. The mean quantity of chlorine in the nine 
remaining samples was 19-507 ; and if we take the mean coefficient of the four North 
* If we take the general coefficient of the ocean, 1-812, the salinity of the East Greenland current would be 
35-258, which of course makes no material difference. 
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