236 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



the Gulf that it has no appreciable effect on the outflowing Cabot 

 Current. Fortunately the physical characters of the latter, and of 

 Labrador Current water are now fairly well known, thanks to Dawson's 

 records (1896, 1913), to the work of the Scotia (Matthews, 1914), and 

 of the Seneca (U. S. Coast Guard, 1915). According to Dawson (1913) 

 the minimum temperature of the Cabot Current in Cabot Straits is 

 from —.5° to +.5°. On Banquereau Bank the minimum is about 

 -.1°; off Halifax -.2° to 1° in May (U. S. Coast Guard, 1915, 

 Seneca Stations 14-17), while it is only fractionally higher (.7°-l°) 

 off Shelburne in June (p. 217). And only a very slight warming takes 

 place, at the level of minimum temperature, even by midsummer. 

 The salinity of the cold water along the Nova Scotian coast is 

 correspondingly low, and constant, that of the coldest layer (50-75 

 meters) 31%o-S2.3%q, its average about 31.9%o.^ The Labrador 

 Current is even colder than the Cabot Current, its temperature being 

 about — 1.6°, when not influenced by solar warming, or by mixture 

 with Atlantic water (Matthews, 1914); and even in July its surface 

 warms only to about 7°. For example, at Seneca Station 74, east of 

 the Grand Bank, July 25th, the temperature was 7.9° on the surface; 

 about 0° at 20 fathoms, —1.6° at 50 fathoms (U. S. Coast Guard, 1915, 

 p. 60). 



It is also much salter, its characteristic salinity upwards of 32.5%o, 

 according to Matthews (1914), while even along its inner western edge, 

 where most influenced b}' river-flow from the land, its surface salinity 

 hardly falls below 32%^ (minimum about 31.9%o, Matthews, 1914). 

 Both the Scotia and the Seneca records show that the salinity is 

 upwards of 32.5%o on the Grand Banks, except close to the south 

 coast of Newfoundland where the surface is fresher owing to land 

 drainage. 



From this it appears that did any considerable amount of unadul- 

 terated Labrador water join the Nova Scotia coast current, the tem- 

 perature of the latter would be lower, its salinity higher, than in Cabot 

 Straits. True, a junction of Labrador with St. Lawrence water might 

 take place without altering the temperature of the latter at all, were 

 the former sufficiently^ mixed with warm Atlantic water, during its 

 transit from the Grand Banks to Nova Scotia, to raise its tempera- 



