BIGELOW: COAST WATER EXPLORATION OF 1913. 253 



the reverse, i. e., toward the east and northeast, as graphically de- 

 scribed by Captain Johnston (1913). 



At present it seems safe to say that although there may be sporadic 

 movements of Labrador Current water from the Grand Banks toward 

 Nova Scotia, there is no constant current in that direction; and that 

 the increment of polar water which reaches our coasts in that way, plus 

 the polar water which joins the Cabot Current at Cabot Strait is too 

 small in amount to have much effect on temperatures and salinities off 

 New England. And it certainly has very little influence on the plank- 

 ton west of Nova Scotia, where true polar organisms, such as char- 

 acterize the plankton of the Labrador Current, are seldom recorded. 



The existence of an outflow from the Gulf of St. Lawrence via 

 Cabot Straits has been recognized by oceanographers for many years 

 (Maury, 1855); but Schott (1897) seems to have been the first to 

 emphasize its importance. Fortunately we now have considerable 

 data as to its volume and physical characters, thanks to the tidal and 

 current observations, temperatures and densities, taken by the Tidal 

 Survey of Canada under the direction of Dr. W. B. Dawson (1896- 

 1913). These establish a constant outflow along the south side of 

 Cabot Straits, with velocities as high as 1-2 knots per hour between 

 Cape North and St. Paul Id., termed the "Cape Breton current" by 

 Dawson, but for which the earlier name, "Cabot Current" is appro- 

 priate; and an inflow along the north side of the Strait. The Cabot 

 Current has sometimes been explained as polar water, entering the 

 Gulf via the Straits of Belle Isle, and flowing southerly along the west 

 coast of Newfoundland. But Dawson's (1907) survey of the Straits 

 of Belle Isle proved that no great volume of water enters the Gulf 

 from that quarter, there being very little balance of inflow over out- 

 flow, if any, in summer, though with a possibility of rather greater 

 influx in early spring. The distribution of temperature in the Gulf 

 likewise shows little or no effect of polar water, for in summer polar 

 temperatures are not found within the Straits of Belle Isle (Krummel, 

 1907, Dawson, 1907). And there is no evidence that such water as 

 does enter via the latter flows southerly along the Newfoundland 

 coast, but just the reverse, because the current along this coast is from 

 south to north caused by the water which enters the Gulf along the 

 north side of Cabot Straits. To enter further into Dawson's very inter- 

 esting results is not necessary since the Gulf of St. Lawrence concerns 

 us here only in its relation to the coastal water further south. What 

 is important is that his work demonstrates beyond a doubt that the 

 water which flows out through Cabot Straits is not polar, but true 



