6 EXPLORATIONS, WESTERN ATLANTIC, STEAMER BACHE, 1914. 
temperature of the detached thread of mercury at the moment of 
reading. The water samples were collected with Ekman reversing 
water bottles (Ekman, 1905b).and with the Bigelow stopcock water 
bottle (Bigetow, 1914a). Unfortunately, the former proved unreliable 
in the strong currents in which much of the work was carried on; 
consequently a number of the water samples are untrustworthy, and 
such have been omitted from the table of salinity (p: 55). 
The limitation of the gear on the Bache made it impracticable to 
work deeper than 1,800 meters. Only occasionally were water 
samples or temperatures taken on the sounding wire at greater 
depths; but down to 1,800 meters the records are sufficiently full 
to afford a satisfactory survey of both temperature and salinity. 
Throughout the cruise the weather was most unfavorable. There 
was a constant succession of gales, occasionally of almost hurricane 
strength, taxing vessel and personnel to the utmost. 
The salinities were executed in the laboratories of the United 
States Bureau of Fisheries at Washington. 
THE ATLANTIC WATER. 
The Bache stations give a survey of the upper 1,800 fathoms be- 
tween Chesapeake Bay and Bermuda; from Bermuda to a point 200 
miles to the southwest; and between the latter and the northern end 
of the Bahama Bank. (Seechart.) Off Chesapeake Bay the surface 
temperature (fig. 1) rose suddenly from about 12° over the 200-meter 
contour to 21:5° 80 miles farther east. This very warm water was 
evidently only a very narrow band, for as a rule the surface water, 
as far as Bermuda, was 18.8°-19.5°. Close to Bermuda the surface 
temperature was 18°-19°; but about 200 miles farther south it rose 
to 21°, and on the line to the Bahamas it was constantly 20° or 
warmer, except between longitude 67° 30’ and 71°, where cooler 
water was encountered. North of the Bahamas the surface water 
warmed to 23°; and it was even warmer, 23.6°, at the mouth of the 
Straits of Florida, off Jupiter Inlet. These observations show that 
there were four fairly distinct temperature zones, as outlined on the 
chart (fig. 1): First, the coast water off Chesapeake Bay, 15° or 
colder, which probably extends, though with constantly rising tem- 
perature, to Savannah; second, the general warm water of the An- 
tilles drift, with temperatures warmer than 20°, which swings north- 
eastward parallel to the coast, reaching latitude about 36° in Jan- 
uary and February; third, the superheated water coming from the 
Gulf of Mexico, via the Straits of Florida, which gradually merges 
with the Atlantic water; and, fourth, a comparatively cool region 
west of Bermuda, no doubt continuous with the colder water farther 
north, All this, of course, agrees in its main lines with the earlier 
