EXPLORATIONS, WESTERN ATLANTIC, STEAMER BACHE, 1914. 31 



meters off Cape Florida; to about 250 meters off Key West. The 

 same lenticular mass of 36.5%o water (fig. 29) is to be seen on 

 the Bahaman side and at the same level (200 meters), as off Cuba 

 in the Key West-Habana profile. As in the latter, the surface is 

 freshest where warmest, though this is now in the center of the 

 Strait instead of on the Bahaman side. The whole range of surface 

 salinity is only about O.P/oo- The curves for temperature colder 

 than 20°, and salinities lower than 36^/oo, dip regularly from 

 west to east, the curves for 36Voo ai^d 15° coincidmg almost 

 exactly with each other, and the slope growing progressively steeper 

 with decrease of temperature and salinity. The saltest and coldest 

 water was in the deepest part of the channel, 34.85''/oo and 6.16° at 

 800 meters. 



Stations 



Fig. 29.— Salinity profile across the Straits of Florida, Gun Cay to Cape Florida. 



Comparison between these two profiles shows that the subsurface 

 temperatures between Cape Florida and the Bahama Bank agree 

 very closely with those of the northern half of the Key West-Habana 

 profile, the curve for 20° dipping from 25 or 30 meters near Florida 

 to about 250-275, the curve for 15° to about 500 meters in both, 

 but below 500 meters the Cape Florida profile is considerably the 

 colder of the two, depth for depth, its 800-meter temperature being 

 about the same as at the 1,200-meter temperature between Key 

 West and Habana. There was probably a similar difference in 

 salinity, though owing to the lack of data at stations 10198 and 10201 

 complete comparison is not possible. 



We find the same general type of temperature and salinity sections 

 (fig. 30, 31) along the Jupiter Inlet-Bahama Bank line, the water 

 saltest at 200 meters, warmest on the surface, with the same general 

 rise in temperature and salinity from west to east. The total range 

 of both is as great as before, but the depth of the channel having 



