BIGELOW: COAST WATER EXPLORATION OF 1913. 249 



the higher sahnity of 1913 off Penobscot Bay, for there our obser- 

 vations were made at practically the same season in the two years. 

 Comparison of the charts for the two years (Plate 2, and 1914a, Plate 2) 

 shows how much further northwestward toward Penobscot Bay the 

 salt tongue of off shore water extended, and, conversely, how much 

 less evident was the outrush of comparatively fresh water from the 

 bay, in 1913. But east of Mt. Desert the surface water next the coast 

 was fresher in 1913 than in 1912. 



Over the Nova Scotia coast bank, near Lurcher Shoal, likewise, the 

 surface salinity was higher in 1912 (32.84%o at Station 10031) than in 

 1913 (32.75%o at Station 10096); but on German Bank the reverse 

 was the case (32.70%o at Station 10029, 32.79%o at Station 10095). 

 Over the eastern basin the surface salinity was slightly higher in 1912 

 than in 1913, the readings at three pairs of stations being: — 



And in 1913 the surface salinity was nowhere so high in the Gulf as it 

 was off Lurcher Shoal in 1912 (32.84%o)- 



The subsurface salinity for the two years was about the same in 

 Massachusetts Bay, in August, for, though there was much less 

 difference between surface and bottom in 1913 (Station 10106) than 

 at the same locality in 1912 (Station 10045), the mean for the entire 

 column is almost precisely the same (32.4%o). 



The observations off the mouth of the Bay were taken a month later 

 in 1913 than in 1912. And while the salinity was considerably higher 

 above forty fathoms, lower below that depth, in 1913 than in 1912, the 

 mean salinities for the two years differs by only about .l%o (Station 

 10002, July, 1912, 32.54%o; Station 10087, August, 1913, 32.63%o), 

 no more than can be charged to the general rise of salinity which takes 

 place after the spring freshets from the rivers have passed (1914b). 

 In the western basin the observations for 1913 (Station 10088) were 

 intermediate in date, as well as in geographic location, between the two 

 stations of 1912 (10007, 10043) ; and they were likewise intermediate in 

 salinity all the way from surface to bottom, i. e., it was about the same 

 in this general region in the two years. The same is also true of the 



