248 G- F. Me E won. 



eastern shores of Formosa and the adjacent islands. While the larger 

 part of the Equatorial Current passes into the China Sea, a portion of 

 it is deflected northward along the eastern coast of Formosa, until 

 reaching the parallel of 26 it bears off to the northeast, washing the 

 whole southeastern coast of Japan, and increasing in strength as it 

 advances to a limit which appears to be variable. 



At the very outset the Japan Current must force its way thru the 

 barrier of the Loochoo Islands and little later thru that chain of rocks, 

 shoals and islets extending from Yokohama to the Bonin Islands, then 

 it has nearly 6000 miles to traverse before reaching the opposite shore 

 of the Pacific. Thruout this distance it is opposed by the northeast 

 monsoon from the end of September to the end of February. Hence it 

 is not surprising that its force should be checked, and its continuity as 

 an eastward current should be for the time almost obliterated. In fact, 

 according to many reports of navigators the current is subject to serious 

 fluctuations which appear to be due to the monsoons, and as compared 

 to the Gulf Stream is cooler and has a much smaller volume. 



After reaching the northwest coast of North America near Sitka, 

 Alaska it has a southward branch which, by the time it reaches San 

 Francisco has become a cold current rather than a warm one, simply 

 because it is intruding on a normally warmer area. 



2. Richter (5) attributed the low in-shore temperatures to a polar 

 current, and his argument may be summarised as follows. The question 

 not as to the existence, but as to to the character of the ocean cur- 

 rents contiguous to the coast of California is still an open one. Some 

 of the most recently published maps show that a cold current of great 

 width washes our shores, and others again indicate that it is the de- 

 flected warm Japan Current which is passing this country in its south- 

 ward movement. A third opinion gives the surface w r aters to the 

 "Kuro Siwo" or Japan Current, and identifies the sub -stream with 

 the polar current. 



But his own conclusions are briefly as follows: The northern or 

 arctic currents are powerful enough to alter materially the direction 

 of the Japan Current. They sweep against the warm water as the 

 polar waters meet the Gulf Stream on the north of Scotland. The 

 arctic waters predominate on the surface by superior force until the 

 "Kuro Siwo" gives a strong wall, which causes the cold current to pass 

 underneath in the direction of the equator. One branch of this artic 

 current continues south along the coast as far as Point Conception, 

 latitude 34. 



