The Counter cur rent is strongest near its southern edge, 

 with a maximum speed of. 80 cm„ /sec. between 55 and 75 meters. 

 The 10 cm„ /sec. isovei reaches the 700-decibar surface immediately 

 below the band of highest velocity, while at the northern edge the 7 

 cm /sec. level is between 25 and 50 meters with the bottom of the 

 current (0-10 cm„ /sec. ) below the 700-decibar surface Consider- 

 ably higher speeds are indicated down to the 700-decibar surface in 

 the South Equatorial Current„ 



It is difficult to discuss the flow south of 5° N c , the region 

 of the South Equatorial Current;, with any degree of certainty,, The 

 loss of data from the stations at the Equator and 1° N„ precludes 

 drawing of the dynamic topography through this area. This is un- 

 fortunate, as inspection of figure 12 shows a considerable difference 

 in level across this region Figure 12 indicates a moderately strong 

 westerly flow between the southern boundary of the Countercurrent 

 and 3 N r . and a westerly flow with velocities over 60 cm. /sec. 

 between 3 S. and 5 S About all that can be said with certainty is 

 that the South Equatorial Current was present, during the time of the 

 cruise 



Supplementary information on the velocities of the cur- 

 rents may be determined from the drift of the longline gear (Austin 

 MS) used for sampling the fish population (gear described by Niska 

 1953) and from the drift of the vessel while on oceanographic stations. 

 The former, in view of the relatively small effect of windage on the 

 8-mile length of the longline, yields a reliable estimate of both speed 

 and direction of the current integrated over the depth of the lines (100 

 to 300 feet)„ The information from vessel drift is less reliable be- 

 cause of the quantitatively unknown effect of wind and the fact that 

 the determination of drift included running time between fixes 



Of particular interest on figure 2, upper panel, is the 

 westerly set (North Equatorial Current) between 15° N„ and 9° N„ , 

 the easterly set (Equatorial Countercurrent) between 8° - 9 N„ and 

 5° - 6 N„ , and the westerly set (South Equatorial Current) south of 

 this latitude,, Attention is called to the easterly set (109 T„ ) at the 

 Equator, which is significant when considering the submerged counter- 

 current (the undercurrent) reported by Cromwell et al (1954)„ Also 

 the three northernmost stations in the South Equatorial Current, 

 particularly stations 9, 10, and 11 (fig„ 1), exhibit a northerly com- 

 ponent, while those south of the Equator (25-27) show a southerly 

 component (Cromwell 1953) 



When possible to calculate from available navigational 

 data, the direction of drift while on oceanographic stations was 



