PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY OF THE GULP OP MAINE 



539 



along the axis of this cold stratum then rose fairly uniformly from about 0.5° close 

 to land to from 2.4° to 2.7° in the southern side of the basin, to 2.7° to 2.9° over 

 Georges Bank, and to 3.1° over the continental slope, as just described. On the 

 other hand, the water as warm as 5° that floods the greater part of the basin at 

 depths greater than 120 to 150 meters did not then touch the northern slope of 

 Georges Bank, ofif which the water was fractionally colder than 5° right down into 

 the deepest fold of the trough (station 20064) . 



The fact that the southern end of this profile crossed one of the chief breeding 

 grounds for haddock in North American waters, and at the height of the spawning 



Stations 



CM 

 OO 



CO 



OO 



Meter 



Fig. 17. 



-Temperature profile crossing the nortlieastern part of tlie gulf, ofE tlie mouth of the Bay of Fundy, for March 

 22 and 23, 1920 (stations 20080 to 20083) 



Evi- 



season, lends biological interest to the temperatures at stations 20061 to 20068. 

 dently the eggs were being set free in water of about 2.5° to 2.7°. 



The boundaries of the comparatively warm (5°) bottom water in the eastern arm 

 of the basin, for March, are outhned further by a profile from Maine to Nova Scotia, 

 opposite the mouth of the Bay of Fundy (fig. 17, stations 20080 to 20083). Tem- 

 peratures higher than 5° were confined to depths greater than 150 meters along this 

 -ine, but the isotherm for 3° shows the warmer bottom water banking up against the 



