John Murray

“ An arctic current passes southward along the coast of Greenland, carrying with it vast fields of hummocky ice, and enters the North Atlantic through the straits which separate Iceland from the coast of Greenland. To the eastward of this line we have a sea free from ice throughout the year. A warm current—the so-called extension of the Gulf Stream—passes between the coasts of Scotland and Iceland, and carries a large amount of heat to the shores of Norway and Lapland, rendering them relatively mild and habitable. ”

“ If we draw a line from the east side of Iceland to the south end of Spitzbergen we have, generally speaking, on the west of this line a sea covered with ice during the whole of the year, throughout nearly its entire extent. It is only rarely that the east coast of Greenland can be approached through the lanes and openings formed in the ice. ”

“ The Norwegian Sea, therefore, includes the whole of the region between Greenland and Norway, a portion of which, to the north west of the island of Jan Mayen, is sometimes known as the Greenland Sea. The Norwegian Sea is a well-marked basin cut off from the Atlantic by submarine ridges connecting the north of Scotland, the Faroe Islands, Ice land, and Greenland. On the summit of these ridges there is an average depth of about 250 fathoms. Between Spitzbergen and Lapland there is a wide opening into the Barents Sea, where the depth is from 100 to 200 fathoms. ”