188 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBEBGEN. 
circumpolar research and the following up of this 
warm current, not the least important w T ould be the 
insight which it would probably afford as to the 
regulating influences of the weather of North Europe, 
or generally of the northern hemisphere. Meteorolo¬ 
gists have long suspected that the weather in Western 
Europe depends in some way upon what has happened 
in the vicinity of the Pole. The many advantages to 
be gained to science by circumpolar navigation cannot 
be doubted. Among them would be careful observa¬ 
tions of the currents and temperatures of the surface 
and at various depths, and organisms which doubtless 
would be obtained by dredging, as far as practicable, 
in the bed of the Arctic Sea, in the highest latitude, 
and the probable extension of the whale-fisheries, as 
well as the discovery of new land, should such exist. 
June 1.—The edge of the ice was 170 miles distant, 
and the warm water was found at the surface, and cold 
water, which is of greater density, below. 
June 13.—The sounding was taken at the edge of 
the pack. If the experiments had been continued, in¬ 
creasing temperature would probably have been found 
at a lower depth, as was the case further north. 
June 15.—To-day we were well in the ice, and had 
only time to sound in 50 fathoms ; but even here we 
found an increasing temperature. 
