164 



DISCOVERY REPORTS 



The sections which have been studied all show below the Antarctic water a tongue 

 of maximum temperature at intermediate depth, which has been interpreted as showing 

 a flow towards the south. It is, as already mentioned, necessary to exercise great caution 

 when drawing conclusions as to the existence of a horizontal current from tongue-like 

 distributions of oceanographic elements, but in this case the conclusion must be correct. 

 From the Discovery Reports it is evident that at all stations within the body of Antarctic 

 water an intermediate layer with water of high temperature is found, regardless of the 

 longitude of the station. Fig. 22 shows temperature-salinity diagrams from four stations. 

 Latitude and longitude of these stations are entered in the figure. Since all these stations 

 from widely different areas show a similar feature it must be concluded that the inter- 

 mediate layer with high temperature extends all around the Antarctic Continent. It 



34 2 



Fig. 22. 



Temperature-salinity diagrams at four stations around the Antarctic Continent. The numbers at 

 the marks on the curves give the depths in hectometres. 



follows that within this layer the current has a component from the north because the 

 maximum would soon disappear on account of mixing processes if no supply of warm 

 water from the north took place. 



A tongue of water of low temperature is seen in all sections, stretching towards the 

 north at depths between 80 and 200 m. In considering this tongue it must be borne 

 in mind that all observations were taken in summer (November to April) and that 

 great seasonal variations occur in the upper layers. In winter an effective cooling from 

 above takes place and the water may become intermixed and attain a uniform density 

 to a depth of 100 m. or more, as evident from the observations at station 471 (54° 57' S, 

 27° 59I' W) on November ist, 1930, when the temperature in the layer o to 100 m. 

 varied between —1-62° and —1-77° and the salinity between 34-04°/^^ and 34"077oo- 



