28 EXPLORATIONS, WESTERN ATLANTIC, STEAMER BACHE, 1914. 



that in the southern half of the channel (stations 10199 and 10200) 

 the saltest water (about 36.5°/oo) was at 200 meters, with 36^/oo 

 water on the surface above it. Below the 200-meter level there 

 was a rapid vertical decline of salinity to about 35-35. 2%o at 600 

 meters, followed by a much slower decrease, to about 34.9°/oo 

 at 1,100-1,200 meters. The temperature and salmity profiles (fig. 

 24, 25) constructed from these sections show that water colder 

 than 10°, and with salinity lower than 35°/oo, was banked up 

 agamst the Florida slope to within 200-300 meters of the surface. On 

 the Cuban side of the profile water of 35''/oo was met only below 

 about 900 meters (10° water at 700 meters). The coldest water of 

 all (4°-5°) lay on the bottom off Habana below 1,300 meters, and 

 water equally cold may have filled the trough below this depth, but 



Fig. 24.— Temperature profile, Key West-Habana. 



we have no records from this or greater depths on the north side. 

 Perhaps the most striking feature of the profile apart from the cool 

 fresh water off Key West is the band of warm water at 100-800 

 meters in the center of the channel outlined by the curves for tem- 

 peratures between 10° and 20°. In the middepths this band was 

 even warmer than the water next to the Cuban coast; but the surface 

 water was warmest on the Cuban side where there was a surface layer 

 about 100 meters thick of 24°-25°. 



Unfortunately, the salinity profile is not complete, there being 

 no salinities for the middepths at stations 10198 or 10201; hence it 

 is a question whether the warm band just mentioned was charac- 

 terized by high salinity as well as by high temperature. There is 

 nothing in the data from the other stations along this line to forbid 

 such an assumption. The range of surface salinity was only about 



