THE NORWEGIAN NORTH ATLANTIC EXPEDITION

Abstract

THE Vöringen left Hammerfest on July 29 on its last cruise. On the 31st, at noon, Bear Island was reached. Here the expedition was kept till August 3, the weather being too stormy to allow sea work to be done. In the night of August 1–2 a party landed on the east side of the island, where the sea was sufficiently smooth to allow a boat to land: but foggy weather interfered with any observations of importance being made. Some birds were shot and some fossils collected. In the morning hours extensive fishing operations were carried on from the deck of the ship, now anchored in some 12 fathoms. From 4 to 7 A.M. 200 large cods were hauled. From a point about midway between Bear Island and Spitzbergen we worked first up a cross section towards west-north-west, till we found 1,149 fathoms' depth on the afternoon of the 4th. From this point the course was shaped for South Cape, Spitzbergen. At noon on the 5th we made the cape, sailed round the island lying off the cape, and entered the Stor-Fjord. Here the sun was shining and the water smooth, so Capt. Wille swung the ship for deviation. The next morning we dredged on the bank lying south-east of South Cape; here the temperature was – 1°′2 C. at the bottom, in 140 fathoms, and zero in 120 fathoms. In the upper layers the temperature was very irregularly distributed, both increasing and decreasing with depth. We went again round the islands and to the west side of South Cape, taking here a departure for a larger cross section along the parallel of the cape towards Greenland. Having crossed the Spitzbergen bank, we sounded 523, 743, 1,017, 1,429, 1,487, and 1,686 fathoms, when we at last, on August 8, were stopped by the ice in 76° 26′ N. lat. and 0° 29′ W. long. Off the Spitzbergen bank we found 0° C. in a depth of 470 fathoms. The polar current was reached in long. 5° E. Station No. 360, where we met the ice, gave the following serial temperatures characteristic of the polar current:—Surface, 3°′2 C., 40 fathoms, – 1°′3; 70 fathoms, – 0°′3; 200 fathoms, – 0°7; 300 fathoms, – 1°′0; 1,686 fathoms at bottom, – 1°′3. On this station we lost a trawl and 2,163 fathoms of dredge rope. The sea-bottom between Spitzbergen and Greenland was very rough; the trawl or dredge seldom came up without damage or having stones inclosed, some of which were rather heavy. We sailed, on August 9, northwards along the ice, and reached our next cross section on the 10th, lat. 77° 50′, long. 0° 9′ W. The soundings were, from west to east, 1,640, 1,686, 1,333, 1,343, 948, 110 fathoms. The polar current closed in about 4° E. long. Farther east, 0° C. was found in 300 to almost 500 fathoms. On Station No. 354, lat. 78° 1′, long. 6° 54′ E., we had the great satisfaction of verifying the Swedish sounding made in 1868 at the same place by von Otter in the Sofia. The Swedes found 1,350 fathoms, we found 1,343. This agreement gives me great confidence in von Otter's soundings, which were made with less perfect means than ours. The Swedish deep-sea soundings in the Sofia extend far westwards and northwards from Spitzbergen, and are therefore of the greatest importance. From our last cross-section we took a longitudinal section parallel to the coast of Spitzbergen. The depths reached were 421 fathoms (temperature 0°′0), 905 fathoms, and 459 fathoms in lat. 79° 59′, long. 5° 40′ E. There was 0° in 390 fathoms depth. There was ice floating in the surface temperature at 5°′2. This brought our section to a close.