EXPLOEATIONS, WESTERN ATLANTIC, STEAMER BACHE, 1914. 27 



Water warmer than 24° was confined to the southern and western 

 part of the channel, and the water in the Old Bahama Channel was 

 probably as warm as 24°, while the surface was fractionally cooler 

 along the western face of the Bahama Bank. At the northern end 

 of the channel the surface temperature was 23.6°-23.7°, and it was 

 considerably cooler east of the Bahama Bank, as pointed out (p. 6). 

 Tlius, the inequalities in surface temperature are gradually dissipated 

 from west to east and north, the temperature range diminishing 

 from 4° off Habana to practically zero off Jupiter Inlet. As a whole, 

 the Straits were considerably warmer on the surface than the Atlantic 

 water east of the Bahama Bank. 



34.9 35 



Salinity; %o 

 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 36 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 



1200 



Fig. 23.— Salinity sections on the line Key West-Habana; stations 10197, 10199, 10200. 



The surface saUnity was much more uniform than the surface tem- 

 perature, the extreme range over the whole length of the channel 

 being about 0.27°/oo only (35.9° to 36.17Voo). 



The serial observations on the Key West-Habana line (fig. 22, 23) 

 show that off Key West the water cooled from nearly 21° on the 

 surface to 11° at 200 meters; 20 miles farther south from 23° to 14°; 

 in the center of the channel only from 23.5° to 22° in the same depth. 

 Below that depth the curves of the temperature sections on this line 

 approach each other, the temperature range at 900 meters being 

 only 1.5° (7°-8.5°). The warmest station was in the center of the 

 Strait (station 10201). Unfortunately, serial water samples were 

 taken at only three of these five stations (none at station 10201, 

 perhaps the most interesting of all). However, they show that the 

 salinity was lowest immediately off Key West (station 10197), and 



