42 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
OcEANOGRAPHY. 
Up to the present time no systematic studies of the oceanography 
of the Gulf of Maine have been undertaken. The surface tempera- 
tures have, of course, been known in a general way for many years, as 
has the existence of a cold band of water close to the coast of Maine 
and in the Bay of Fundy; and thanks to Dickson’s, (1901) researches 
we have a fairly satisfactory idea of the seasonal range of surface tem- 
perature for two years, 1896 and 1897. But his records were far too 
few to delimit the distribution of slightly differing temperatures within 
the Gulf. 
Almost all the knowledge we possess as to the bottom temperatures 
dates back to 1872, 1873, and 1874 when a series of dredgings was 
earried out by the U.S. Fish Commission and the U.S. Coast Survey 
on George’s Bank, in the Bay of Fundy, off Cape Elizabeth, and at 
various other localities in the Gulf. The bottom temperature was re- 
corded at each station, and the records have been published by Verrill, 
(1873-1875); but unfortunately, as he himself points out, the Miller- 
Casella thermometers which were used proved unreliable, two instru- 
ments often differing by several degrees when used simultaneously. 
Nevertheless the results were valuable as showing in a general way 
the low bottom temperature of the Gulf (p. 93). So far as I can learn, 
no intermediate temperatures have ever been taken in the Gulf, except 
a few which I obtained during the summer of 1911 between Cape 
Ann and Casco Bay. 
The salinity records for the Gulf are even more scanty den those 
for temperature. A considerable number of hydrometer readings for 
the surface have been taken by the Bureau of Fisheries; but most of 
them were made with unstandardized instruments, and under circum- 
stances precluding any approach to accuracy. The only reliable 
salinity records from the surface are three titrations by Dickson, 
(1901), of samples collected off Cape Cod, April, 1896; off Cape Sable, 
April, 1896; and northeast of George’s Bank, April, 1896. And there 
are no records whatever of the salinity on the bottom, or at inter- 
mediate depths. 
For George’s Bank and the Eastern Channel, the data is rather more 
extensive, there being eighteen titrations (Dickson, 1901); and a 
considerable series of temperatures were taken by the ALBATROSS in 
1883 in the channel with Negretti and Zambra reversing thermometers. 
There is one titration from Brown’s Bank and a considerable number 
