NO. 13 SALINITY OF PACIFIC SURFACE WATER — CLARK 9 



BRIEF RESUME OF THE CONDITIONS FOUND IN THE 

 NORTH PACIFIC 



For our knowledge of the water densities and of the temperatures 

 of the North Pacific we are chiefly indebted to the late Vice-Admiral 

 S. O. Makaroff of the Russian Navy. Not only did he take an 

 enormous number of observations of his own, beginning in [866 as a 

 naval cadet and from that time almost constantly until his death 

 on the " Variag," but in an exhaustive monograph published in 

 1894, l he summarized and digested all the work of the others who 

 had taken observations in that area, republishing, often with certain 

 corrections calculated by himself, all their data. 



The following account of the conditions in the Pacific is chiefly a 

 summary of that given by Makaroff. 



Speaking broadly, there is found in the trade wind belt of the 

 western part of the Pacific, a zone of warm water with a high salin- 

 ity ; water with a density of more than 1.0270 is only found in this 

 zone and along the equator ; beyond this area as far as the Philippines 

 and Japan, and approaching the equator in a broad curve around it 

 to the eastward, we find water having a density of from 1.0265 to 

 I.0270. Corresponding to latitude 42 to 46 X. we find water with 

 a density of from 1.0255 to 1.0260; this approaches the coast of 

 California where it mingles with the coast water and, taking a direc- 

 tion toward the southsonthwest, forms a cuneiform area within the 

 area of water of higher salinity. It is probable that this area of low 

 salinity (which lies to the southward of the Hawaiian Islands) is nar- 

 rower in August than in March, and also that it is then situated more 

 to the southward. This zone corresponds to the so-called California 

 current. 



The surface water to the northward of the zone with density 

 ranging from 1.0255 to 1.0260 has a density of from 1.0250 to 1.0255, 

 and Alakaroff believed it probable that the larger part of the surface 

 water of the Bering Sea lies within these extremes 1 see beyond, 

 p. 17). 



The mean specific gravity of the surface water oi the Pacific 

 (excluding the enclosed seas) is 1.0264. 



The specific gravity of the lower levels oyer the entire Pacific 

 is everywhere the same ; the average is 1.0265. 



The "Challenger" found near the antarctic ice at 50 fathoms a 

 specific gravity of 1.0265, or the same as the mean for the deep water 



1 " Vitiaz " i Tikhii Okean; Le "Vitiaz" et I'Ocean Pacifique. St. 



Petersbourg, 1894. 



