VARIOUS OBSERVATIONS.

seas which should not be overlooked.

185

During six

months of the year the sun is above the horizon; and although the rays may be oblique, still the waters may acquire a higher temperature than under similar conditions farther south, owing to there being little or no cooling from nocturnal radiation, and probably to the constant dryness of the air allowing the sun to strike with full power. During the winter these causes would intensify the cold.

The occurrence of warm water is by no means confined to the sea around Spitzbergen; but, before referring to other regions, we may mention that a set of instruments for taking soundings and deep-sea temperatures was supplied this year by Mr. Smith to Captain David Grey, of the whaler Eclipse, whose father, in the year 1855, supplied the valuable information and survey of the extension of Pond's Bay, now called Eclipse Sound. His observations were made in the middle of the sea, between Greenland and Norway, and along a line running north-easterly from Iceland. They coincide with Dr. Carpenter's observations, proving the termination of the Gulf Stream. In June, 1854, Morton advanced beyond Kennedy Channel, and saw open water as far as the horizon, visible from a hill 500 feet high. The wind was from the north-west, and a rain cloud was seen in the distance above the open sea. The water was setting in a strong current south, and

the ice along the shores was in a rapid state of dissolution. The water was found in the several places tried to be well-above the freezing-point; and in one place, some distance from the ice-foot, and at a depth of 5 feet, the temperature was 40° F. There was a strong tide from the north. Kane's vessel wintered in Renselaer Harbour; the strait was bridged across by ice, with a current running south flowing beneath it. Although the open waters above alluded to may not be direct evidence of a comparatively mild circumpolar region, yet the stream of warm water coming from the north seems to indicate it.

Where can this water acquire its warmth? Sir John Richardson suggests that it is derived from the warm area near Spitzbergen; but this is not supported by evidence, which indicates that in both areas the water comes from the north. It has been suggested that it is a continuation of the Gulf Stream, apparently because it is supposed to supply all the warm water in the Arctic seas; but if there is no reason for believing that the warm sea around Spitzbergen derives its heat from this source, it is still less credible in the case of the KennedyStrait water. It has been suggested that the source of warmth is the northward flow of the general mass of the North Atlantic. If this did account for the warmth of the Spitzbergen area, although this view would be with difficulty reconciled with a southward

TEMPERATURE TABLE.

187

flow of Arctic water, it would be quite inapplicable to the Kennedy-Channel area.

Temperatures taken by us gave the following re

circumpolar research and the following up of this warm current, not the least important would 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. Meteorologists 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 observations 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, increasing 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.

DIARY EXTRACTS.

189

June 17.-Being far in the ice, we only found a slight increase.

June 18.-A second sounding, 50 fathoms deeper than yesterday, when sailing among large pieces of floe-ice, gave an increasing temperature up to 48° F.

June 19.-To-day we had an increase of 7° above the surface temperature at 250 fathoms deep, although but 10 miles distant from yesterday's soundings; but the ice was more open: probably evaporation occurred here, owing to the surface not being so closely covered with ice.

June 20. The first sounding shows the water to be coldest at the ice-foot; the second and third prove the increasing temperature, which, as we were somewhat more closely packed in the ice, increased more quickly, and 39° F. is obtained at 150 fathoms deep.

June 22.-Here we were more closely packed. The surface was a degree colder than yesterday, and the water at the ice-foot had also gone down half a degree; but the warm stream below was the same. If we had had time to sound at greater depths, the temperature of the water would in all probability have been found still on the increase.

June 27.-In this case we have the warm current clearly defined at 250 fathoms depth, being kept below