EXPLORATIONS, WESTERN ATLANTIC, STEAMER BACHE, 1914. 47 



10161) the water was much warmer and salter in the upper layers 

 (maximum temperature 21.5*^, salinity about 36.45*^/oo), with a 

 steady decline with depth, the temperature at 1,800 meters being 

 practically the same as at station 10158. Unfortunately, no water 

 sample was taken at that level. The density (corrected for pressure 

 by Ekman's tables of 1910) was lowest at the surface at aU these 

 stations, greatest at the bottom (p. 60). 



The general temperature profile (fig. 11) shows that at this time 

 the coast water over the sheH and on the continental slope was much 

 colder than the oceanic water farther east at corresponding depths, 

 the transition from one to the other being so sudden that the tem- 



2 .3 



Salinity; J'oo 

 4 .5 .6 .7 8 .9 35 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 36 .1 .2 .3 .4 



Meter 



100 



200 



300 



400 



SOD 



600 



700 



800 



900 

 1000 

 1100 

 1200 

 1300 

 1400 

 1500 

 1600 

 170a 

 1800 



Fig. 48.— Salinity sections off the mouth of Chesapeake Bay; stations 10158, 10160, 10161. 



perature curves dip very steeply from land to sea, a typical ''cold 

 wall." For example, the 5° curve^rises from about 1,000 meters at 

 station 10161 to about 500 meters on the slope in a horizontal dis- 

 tance of 100 miles, and the uniform bottom water of the abyss (4°, 

 and about 35«/oo) from about 1,800 meters over the oceanic basin 

 to about 1,200 meters on the slope in the same distance. But the 

 cold coast water (about 6°) was not continuous with the cold water 

 of the abyss, being separated from it by a band of warmer water 

 (9° -10°) washing the bottom at the 200-meter level, and the curves 

 suggest that the bottom water was even warmer (10°-11°) at about 

 250 meters. 



