PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



603 



Deep temperatures (°C) in the western, central, and northeastern parts of the basin, July and August, 



1914 



However, this type of gradient did not extend to the southeastern part of the 

 basing (station 10225), where the temperature decreased, though at a decreasing rate, 

 from the surface right down to the bottom. This was also the case in the Eastern 

 Channel (station 10227). 



In 1915 the deep stations again exhibited vertical warming with increasing depth 

 in both sides of the basin in August and the first part of September, from the 100 to 

 150 meter level down to the bottom; but the depth at which the water was coldest 

 (100 to 150 meters) was not so uniform as it had been the year before, nor was the 

 vertical range of temperature below this stratum as wide. One station in the center 

 of the basin (10308) showed a progressive cooUng toward bottom instead of the more 

 general rise in temperature, perhaps reflecting some disturbance of the normal circu- 

 lation by the tides flowing around the slopes of Cashes Ledge. 



Deep temperatures, °C., August to September, 1915 



Only one deep serial was taken in the basin of the gulf north of Georges Bank 

 during the summer of 1916 (10345, July 22; southwest part of basin oif Cape Cod), 

 again proving the water coldest at the 100-meter level (3.85°) and fractionally 

 warmer (4.06°) on the bottom in 150 meters. Thus the fact that this was an unusu- 

 ally cold year, from the gulf southward to Chesapeake Bay (p. 628; Bigelow, 1922), 

 both in land climate and in the upper 100 meters of water, was not reflected in the 

 vertical distribution of temperature in the deeps of the gulf. Again, this also applies 

 to August, 1923, another cold summer (p. 632), when the temperature off Moimt Des- 

 ert Rock^^ was lowest (4.5°) at about 90 meters, warming to 4.9° at about 130 meters 

 and to 5.4° at 165 meters. 



A considerable body of evidence has thus accumulated to prove this the usual 

 state in the inner parts of the open basin of the gulf during the late summer, just as 



"Lat. 43° 62' N., long. 67° 54' W., jVug. 6. 



