THE RUSSIAN FUK-SEAL ISLANDS. V 



+ 0. 6°. Near the Couimaiider Islands, with the same surface temperature of + 0'^ 0., 

 4- 7. 1^ was found at 2.> meters and + 4. ;{o at 50 meters. We have here absohitely 

 the same phenomenon as iu the Japan Sea, viz, that the cohl water predomiiiaXes in 

 the h>\ver beds of the western portion of the sea. The identical phenomenon has been 

 observed in the Okhotsk Sea and the Straits of Tartary. 



The bathymetric oljservations in IJeriiiy Sea, at stations Nos. 108, 109, 110, and 

 llo, have established another peculiarity of this sea, viz, the presence in the deeper 

 [lortions of warm water of hi,i>h salinity. Near the coast of Kamchatka the increase 

 in temperature is shown as follows: At station No. 108, from 0° 0. at 200 meters to 

 + ;;. 5'^ C5. at 100 meters; at station 100, from + 0. 0° O. at 150 njeters to + 2. 0° G. 

 at 175 meters and + 3. T^ O. at 200 meters; at station 110, iu longitude l(>5o 5G' E., at 

 a depth of 100 meters a temperature of + 2o C. was found, and at 150 meters and 

 below, + 3. 9° G. The details are shown iu the accompanying diagram (pi. 3). 



These temperatures prove to us that the bed of warm water of great specific 

 gravity is found nearer the surface at the Gommander Islands than along the coast of 

 Kamchatka. A similar phenomenon has also been observed iu the Okhotsk Sea. In 

 other words, the cold and less saline water in descending from north to south 

 approaches the coast toward the western side of the sea and forces the warm water of 

 high salinity to a greater depth. 



Plate 3 shows a section of Bering Sea from the coasts of Kamchatka to the 

 Commander Islands. The cold water here occui)ies an intermediate bed between the 

 surface and a depth of 250 meters. As in the Okhotsk Sea, the bed thickens toward 

 the mainland coast and tapers off as it recedes from it. It will also be seen that this 

 cold water, with a temperature lower than 0° G., has a specific gravity of 1.0252 to 

 1.0254. Where does this water come from? Makarof concludes that as it can not 

 come from the Pacific Ocean, which has no such tem])erature, it must descend from 

 the surface. Since the surface water has a specific gravity of only about 1.0250, he 

 suggests that the great salinity of this surface water is due to freezing in winter. As 

 to the route this water follows, he believes that, as indicated by the temperatures 

 observed by the Tuscarora, it advances from the southwest along the coast of Kam- 

 chatka and consequently also along the Kuril Islands. 



The surface temperatures of the western portion of Bering Sea are indicated on 

 pi. 2, showing the existence of two cold zones, viz, one near Gapes Tcbapliu and 

 Tchukotski, the other between Gapes Navarin and St. Thaddanis. Everywhere else 

 the cold water occupies the western ])art of Bering Sea and the warm water its eastern 

 portion. In the other places the distribution of the temperature is pretty regular; 

 it decreases gradually toward the north. The temperature near Petropaulski is 

 11° G., and near the island of St. Lawrence about 8° G., i. e., the mean temperature 

 of August. 



Fragmentary as is our knowledge of the waters themselves in the western portion 

 of Bering Sea, the bottom of the sea over which they flow is hardly better known. In 

 fact, until the U. S. Fish Gommission sttiamev Albatross ran the three lines of deei)-sea 

 soundings in 1892 and 1895, the shape and nature of the bottom were even less known. 

 Even to-day we do not kuow the depth of the passage between Kamchatka and the 

 Gommander Islands. The Russian and English men-of-war patrolling the seas around 

 the islands have of late years added a number of soundings at 100 fathoms and under, 

 so that it has been possible on the appended map (pi. 1) to trace the 100-fathom line 



