46 EXPLORATIONS, WESTERN ATLANTIC, STEAMER BACHE, 1914. 



instead of on the surface. Over the 200-meter contour, always an 

 important zone off the United States coast because of the abrupt 

 change in the slope of the bottom at this level, the temperature 

 was highest at the middepth (station 10160, 100 meters, 12°), with 9° 

 both on the surface and on the bottom, the latter several degrees 

 warmer than the bottom temperature near the coast, in spite of the 

 greater depth (fig. 47). The salinity (fig. 48) also was considerably 

 higher, with a rapid vertical increase from the surface downward 

 to 35.37Voo on the bottom. Over the 1,800-meter contour, a few 



Fig. 47.— Temperature sections off the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, stations 10158, 10160, 10161. 



miles outside the continental shelf (station 10158, fig. 47), the water 

 was warmer, depth for depth, being nearly uniform at 11°-12° down 

 to 300 meters, below which level there was a rapid cooling to about 5° 

 at 700 meters, followed by a slow decrease of temperature to 3.55° 

 at 1,800 meters. However, there was no water at this station 

 (fig. 23) as salt as the bottom water over the outer edge of the shelf, 

 the highest salinity being only about 35.19Voo at 300 meters, with 

 a slow decrease below this level. Near the surface the course of 

 the salinity section is noteworthy, the water being freshest at 20 

 meters, not on the surface. Eighty-five miles farther offshore (station 



