254 BULLETIX: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



coast water. True, the Cabot Current contains small amounts of 

 polar water, both from the Straits of Belle Isle, and from the Labrador 

 Current via the south coast of Newfoundland, but this is modified 

 past recognition in the general circulation of the Gulf. (For an excel- 

 lent summary of Dawson's results, and of the general circulation of 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, see Nature, April 18, 1901, p. 601). 



The amount of outflow through Cabot Straits must be considerable 

 for the Cabot Current is at least thirty miles broad abreast of Cape 

 North, with a velocity of from .5 knot to 2 knots per hour on the sur- 

 face (Dawson, 1913, p. 12). Its temperature is particularly charac- 

 teristic in summer when the water is coldest (31°-33°) at about fifty 

 fathoms, with warmer water (37°-40°) below at 100 fathoms, 39°-40° 

 at 150 fathoms, while the surface warms to 58°-60° (Dawson, 1913, 

 p. 37). And the discovery, by the Albatross in July, 1885 (Town- 

 send, 1901) of a corresponding layer of minimum temperature, at 

 about the same depth, off the east coast of Nova Scotia, ranging from 

 about 32° opposite Cape Breton to 35° off Halifax, and 39° off Cape 

 Sable, with warmer water at greater depths, shows its influence along 

 that part of the Coast. Surface temperature likewise indicates that 

 the Cabot Current flows toward the southwest over the continental 

 shelf (Schott, 1897); and so does salinity, for as Dickson (1901) has 

 shown, water with a salinity of 32%o or less, is continuous along the 

 coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Maine in spring 

 and summer, though often separated from the equally fresh water over 

 the Newfoundland banks by a Salter wedge. xAnd this salt wedge is 

 normal for the whole year, according to Schott (1902, plate 33), 

 though it may be temporarily obscured, as, for example in August 

 1897 (Dickson, 1901); and, finally, a southwesterly current has often 

 been observed by mariners off the Nova Scotian coast. But al- 

 though a southwesterly long-shore movement of St. LauTence water 

 is incontestable, it is by no means clear how far it can be traced as a 

 recognizable current. According to Schott (1897) it makes its eft'ect 

 felt in the form of low temperatures to the neighborhood of New York. 

 But according to the statement in the Nova Scotia and Bay of 

 Fundy Pilot (British Admiralty, 1903), based on many years data of 

 greater or less value, obtained by mariners, no true southwesterly 

 current can be distinguished beyond Cape Sable, the movements of 

 the surface water over George's Bank being wholly governed by tide 

 and wind. And the work of our own coast survey, mentioned above 

 (p. 231) has failed to reveal any dominant movement of water from 

 northeast to southwest over George's Bank. According to the British 



