BIGELOW. EXPLORATIONS OF THE COAST WATERS 235 



203) combined, reveal an unmistakable current, flowing from north- 

 east to southwest, along the southeast coast of Nova Scotia in August, 

 1914, with a velocity of 1 knot per hour, only 30 miles from the 

 entrance to the Gulf of Maine; and though this current was both 

 narrow (about 15 miles broad off Halifax) and superficial, it was easily 

 distinguishable from the salter, warmer, water which bounded it on 

 the sea side. Its most characteristic feature is, of course, its very 

 low temperature below the level to which solar warming had pene- 

 trated (p. 171). This, with its direction of flow, and the fact that its 

 plankton contained such typically Arctic components as Limacina 

 helicina (p. 248) and Mcrtensia ovum (p. 248), shows that it actually 

 was the southern extension of some current from the north. 



In this part of the world, such fresh and at the same time icy cold, 

 northern water can have only one of two origins, i. e., from the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence, or from the Labrador Current. Considering that 

 it was encountered all along the coast from Halifax to Cape Sable, 

 hugging the land closely; and that there is an important and well- 

 known outflow from the Gulf of St. Lawrence along the west side of 

 Cabot Straits, the Cabot Current, (1915, p. 253, Schott, 1897; Dawson, 

 1896, 1913), the natural presumption would be that our Xova Scotia 

 current is the direct continuation of the latter. 



Actual hydrography further supports this contention, for both in 

 salinity, in minimum temperature, in the degree to which solar warm- 

 ing progresses in summer in the surface layers, in the level at which 

 the temperature is at its minimum, and in the superficiality of the 

 cold water our Nova Scotia Current agrees very closely with the 

 outflow in Cabot Straits, as well as with the neighboring parts of the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence (Dawson, 1913), with which it is actually contin- 

 uous both in temperature (Townsend, 1901), and in salinity (Dick- 

 son, 1901). Furthermore, the fact that we found the Xova Scotia 

 Current in the same location, and with about the same physical 

 characters in two successive years, shows that it was not a sporadic 

 phenomenon, but a regular characteristic of the summer hydrography 

 of the coast. In short, the demonstration that it is a southward exten- 

 sion of the Cabot Current is as complete as hydrographic evidence, 

 other than the actual drifts of bouys, can make it. This, however, 

 does not forbid the possibility that it receives water from the Labrador 

 Current, as the result of a southwest flow across the Grand Banks. 



It is now well known that a certain amount of Labrador water enters 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence via the south coast of Newfoundland and the 

 east side of Cabot Straits (Schott, 1897, 1912; Matthews, 1914). But 

 this is so small in amount, and becomes so thoroughly mixed within 



