AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 3101 



water is invariably cold is, tbat the temperature is thus affected by the 

 ciirreuts which bring the cold water to the surface. That is the reason 

 why the water is always 14 or 1G colder on the Grand Banks than in 

 the surrounding deep sea, simply because the cold Arctic current is 

 forced up and is brought to the surface. . On the Georges shoals the 

 marine life is that of 40. So also in the spawning grounds of the mack- 

 erel in Massachusetts Bay, a tongue of the Arctic current produces a 

 told temperature there of about 40. 



With reference to the tidal wave I will refer to a diagram. The great 

 tidal wave at the full and change of the moon strikes the entrance of 

 the gulf about half past eight in the morning. As this tidal wave en- 

 ters the gulf it is split into two parts by the Magdalen Islands. One 

 part pursues its course between Cape Breton and the Magdalen group, 

 and reaches the southern part of Prince Edward Island at ten o'clock. 

 The other portion passes around to the north of the Magdalen Islands, 

 and over the 60-fathom line of soundings, becoming slower and slower 

 in motion until it reaches this point (referring to Escumenae on map), 

 at four o'clock, and the next point (Richibucto), at six o'clock, and the 

 next point at eight, and finally it meets the wave which came in be- 

 tween the Magdalen Islands and Cape Breton twelve hours before. It 

 meets it at a point in the Straits of Northumberland. In precisely the 

 same way the two tidal waves, one twelve hours later than the other, 

 meet at a point marked on this chart on the north side of Prince Ed- 

 ward Island. You will find the words " tides meet." That is to say, the 

 tidal wave twelve hours old meets the incoming tidal wave at this point 

 and produces constant high water. There is only one other place where 

 the phenomenon is well known to any great extent, that is, in the Ger- 

 man Ocean, where the tidal wave rushing up the English Channel meets 

 the wave twelve, eighteen, or twenty-four hours old in the German 

 Ocean and produces a permanent high tide. According to Admiral 

 Bayfield, the tides here (pointing to Northumberland on map) are two 

 or three times higher than they would be if there was not this meeting 

 of the tidal wave. Bayfield says it is twice the normal height and in 

 some instances three times. The effect of it is that any vessel entering 

 the Strait of Northumberland with the flood tide goes with the tide to 

 the point where the tides meet, and goes on in the same course on the 

 ebb tide all the way through. It comes in with the flood and goes on 

 with the ebb. The numbers on the map indicate the time at which the 

 tide passes, and refer only to the full and change of the moon. The 

 hours would differ between those periods, but at the full and change of 

 the moon it is high water as indicated by these figures. 



Now with regard to the tidal wave that runs up the gulf and produces 

 very remarkable phenomena, I must here draw attention to the fact 

 that the channel of the gulf has an average depth of 300 to 250 feet. 

 All of those depths are not marked on the chart, because owing to the 

 observations which have been made under the instructions of the Min- 

 isters of Marine and Fisheries by Mr. Whiteaves and others, much 

 greater depths than are here marked have been discovered. For ex- 

 ample, there is a depth of 313 fathoms discovered by Mr.Whiteaves, and 

 other depths of 250 and 200 fathoms. Under all circumstances the 

 depth of the channel varies from 250 to 300 fathoms up as far north as 

 Point Des Monts. The fact is, the tidal wave rushes with great rapidity 

 up this channel, and also with great volume ; but when it reaches the 

 contracted channel between Point Des Monts and Cape Chatte, the 

 strait is too narrow for the whole body of water to pass through, and 

 while one portion passes through the other returns by an eddy flood 



