242 PRINCIPLES OF STRATIGRAPHY 



Sea, where the current sets north on the Arabian and south on the 

 African coast. Here, however, the strong monsoons act as modi- 

 fiers of this general circulation. Similar conditions exist in the Per- 

 sian Gulf, but here, as in epicontinental seas generally, the circula- 

 tion is strongly modified by winds and tidal streams. The marginal 

 mediterraneans of the West Pacific coast show the cyclonic circu- 

 lation in the counter-clockwise direction characteristic of the 

 northern hemisphere, but more or less modified by the inflowing cir- 

 culation of the North Pacific itself. The Japan Sea may be taken 

 as typical. Here a branch of the warm and highly saline Kuro- 

 shiwo current enters through the Straits of Korea, and follows the 

 west coast of Japan northeastward. It sends branches out to the 

 Pacific through the several straits, and then turns into the Gulf of 

 Tartary, where it unites with the counter current from the north, 

 the low temperature and salinity of which strongly influence the 

 Asiatic coast, which it follows to the east coast of Korea. The cir- 

 culation within the sea of Okhotsk, and to a less extent in Behring 

 Sea, follows the same plan, though in the latter the influence of the 

 warm Kuroshiwo in summer causes marked modifications such as a 

 northward flowing warm surface stream in the western half to 

 Behring Straits. 



The Australian group of mediterraneans is of especial interest, 

 as it lies on both sides of the equator and so partakes alternately 

 of both systems of circulation. At the time of the northeast mon- 

 soon the counter-clockwise circulation normal for the northern 

 hemisphere exists in the China Sea, the water running W. S. W. 

 along the Chinese coast with a velocity of 20 to 40 nautical miles 

 toward the coast of Anam, where it reaches velocities of 50 to 

 80 nautical miles per day, turns south and east, and then to the 

 northeast, along the west coast of Borneo, Palawan Island and the 

 Philippines, with velocities of 15 to 25 nautical miles per day. The 

 currents of the Java, Flores and Banda seas flow prevailingly east- 

 ward with southward flowing branches through the straits between 

 the small Sunda Islands and on both sides of Timor. The reverse 

 direction is taken by the calculation in the time of the southwest 

 monsoon. Along the coast of Cochin China, the stream flows 

 northeastward, reaching a strength of 40 to 70 nautical miles at 

 Cape Pedaran ; along the Anam coast it flows north, and off the 

 South Chinese coast in general eastward. Along the coast of Pala- 

 wan and Borneo the movement is southwestward, the circle being 

 closed by a northward stream from the Natuna to the Condore 

 islands. In the Java, Flores and Banda seas the main direction of 

 the flow is westward. It thus appears that the circulation in med- 



