14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 60 



Sea which is here forced to the surface through the pressure of the 

 deep current of warm heavy water which enters the Okhotsk Sea 

 through the Strait of La Perouse. It may be, however, that this 

 explanation is not quite correct, and that the presence of this abyssal 

 water among- the Kuril Islands is to be accounted for rather by the 

 application of Ekmann's hypothesis. 



Relatively warm water with a specific gravity of 1.0260 is found 

 in the depths of the Bering Sea, reaching to within 200 meters of 

 the surface ; it is found much nearer the surface at the Commander 

 Islands than along the coast of Kamchatka, a phenomenon similar 

 to that observed in the Sea of Okhotsk. It is to be remarked that 

 in the Bering- Sea the isotherms rise toward the eastward as one 

 leaves the Kamchatkan coast so that we are justified in believing that 

 the warm water approaches nearer the surface in the eastern part 

 than in the western, though there is no evidence that the specific 

 gravity is higher in the former. 



The layer of warm surface water along the coast of Kamchatka is 

 very shallow, and observations on this coast prove the existence 

 of an intermediate zone of cold water, just as in the western part 

 of the Sea of Okhotsk ; determinations made in latitude 6o°-62° N. 

 show that the specific gravity is still low at a depth of 150 meters 

 which induces us to suppose that here the water is influenced by the 

 water of the Arctic Ocean and is not directly connected with the 

 warm water of the more southern latitudes. 



At Port Clarence, Alaska, the specific gravity of the deeper water 

 is from 1.0136 to 1.02 16, much less than in the middle of the Bering- 

 Strait or in the Arctic Ocean. The " Vega." on her course across 

 the Bering Strait from Port Clarence to Simavine. found that the 

 specific gravity rose a little, the value being the same from the 

 surface to the bottom; beyond longitude 171 W. the specific gravity 

 of the surface water became much less than that of the deeper layers, 

 while the temperature was also lower at all depths. 



In the Bering Strait the more saline water occurs on the western 

 side ; the comparatively warm water which enters the Arctic 

 Ocean on the eastern side is strongly mixed with the water from the 

 Alaskan rivers and shows no trace at any depth of the water of the 

 Kuro-Siwo which apparently does not reach this point. 



Observations made near the coast of Asia in latitude 63 16' N. 

 showed the presence of an intermediate layer of cold water similar 

 to that observed near the coast of Kamchatka. 





