248 MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY. 



which the fish feed, is crossed and followed by the 

 schools of fish. In this way the cold coast current is 

 bridged over, so to speak, and the fish brought within 

 reach of the fishing fleet. As the warm water approaches 

 the coast, it seems to be broken up into bands, which 

 lose their velocity by coming into contact with a current 

 flowing in the opposite direction to that in which they 

 originally moved, and their course is again modified to 

 such an extent that they are found flowing in the oppo- 

 site direction of the Gulf Stream. We have further 

 gained concise ideas of the relations of the cold coast 

 current and the warm waters of the Gulf Stream ; and 

 know something of the changes which take place in 

 these relations through the mechanical influence of the 

 winds. The outline of the problem has thus been 

 obtained. The results were interesting enough to in- 

 duce Professor Mendenhall, the superintendent of the 

 Coast Survey, to cooperate with the commission in the 

 study of these temperature problems; and this summer 

 a still more extended investigation is in hand, in which 

 the Coast Survey steamer Blake and the schooner 

 Gramptis are engaged. The work has progressed to 

 such a point that I may say that we shall have over 375 

 stations to study, giving us over 4000 serial tempera- 

 tures, 1000 specific gravity observations, and over 

 14,000 general meteorological records. 



Last year the only means of comparison for our 

 meteorological observations were the records made in 

 New York and Boston; but this year we shall have in 

 addition for this purpose a station upon the Nantucket 

 New South Shoal light-ship, through the courtesy of 

 the Light-house Board. Here a series of observations 



