470 DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVAL SERVICE 



in fig. 8. This is the beginiiing of the condition that in the August cruise was found 

 over practically the whole of the lower part of the gulf. It is interesting that this 

 change has spread from west to east in the direction of the Gaspe current. 



The presence of two large individuals of this species in the boreal oceanic water 

 at Acadia station 54 does not, I think, indicate that there has been an outflow of 

 coastal water at this point, but rather that individuals carried into the boreal water 

 ■ by the tongue of coastal water that comes out of the southern side of the Laurentian 

 -channel, have been transported in the boreal water along the side of the continent past 

 Sable island along the course shown by the distribution of E. hamata (fig. 12). During 

 May-June the tongue of coastal water actually extended from the channel mouth to the 

 southwest for a considerable distance, as found at Acadia station 12 (see fig. 8), with 

 boreal water on either side. We can readily believe that early in the year such a 

 tongue extended as far to the south as Acadia station 54 at least, and from that point 

 passed up over the banks to connect with the coastal water off Halifax. In July- 

 August this connection of the coastal water outside Sable island had been severed in 

 the middle and only the ends left. 



The large amount of boreal water occurring on the shelf off Halifax accounts for 

 the few large *S^. elegans found at stations 47, 48, and 51. 



On the New England coast, Bigelow (1915, p. 299) has found the species extending 

 in the coast water as far south as Long island. 



In making a comparison of the distribution of this species on the two sides of the 

 Atlantic, there arises a doubt as to the identification of the European specimens. 

 According to Eitter-Zahony this species has been confused with S. hipnnctata. If the 

 European records of the latter species are referable to *S'. elegans, we have the .latter 

 species confined to the epiplankton and occurring down to 100 fathoms off the Irish 

 coast (Ritter-Zahony, 1910, p. 2) with the younger stages in the upper layers, and the 

 older stages in the lower. Its outer limit of distribution is not indicated. 



Apstein (1911, p. 171) describes its occurrence throughout the North sea and 

 neighbouring waters, going below 300 metres in depth in the Skager-Eack, and in the 

 Baltic not usually occurring near the surface but only in the deeper water where more 

 saline conditions prevailed; sometimes only on the bottom below 85 metres (Danziger 

 Bucht). The Arctic form occurred only in the Kattegat and Skager-Eack, and was 

 confined to the deeper layers, coming near the surface only in winter. 



There is a definite agreement between the distribution on the two sides of the 

 Atlantic — its general occurrence in the coastal waters and usually confined strictly to 

 the epiplankton; its -rarity and restriction to the deeper layers in areas where low 

 salinity and high summer temperatures prevail, as in the lower St. Lawrence gulf 

 region and in the Baltic ; and the development of a small type in an extensive shallow 

 enclosed area and of a very large type where the true coastal water is deep. One 

 difference is worthy of note: it has (at least in summer) a sharp outer limit on the 

 American coast, where as on the European coast none has been shown, indicating that 

 there is not there the sharp distinction between oceanic and coastal water that is met 

 with on this side of the Atlantic. 



