BIGELOW: EXPLORATIONS IN THE GULF OF MAINE. 97 
with salinities of 32 or less, along the east coast of Nova Scotia. And 
if the Gulf of Maine receives any regular accessions of northern water 
of low salinity, it is probably from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, not from 
the Labrador Current. 
The temperatures of the Gulf of Maine are, of course, very low in 
comparison with the Gulf Stream off shore; and its surface tempera- 
ture, at least, is considerably lower than the average for its latitude, 
about 57°, as calculated by Kriimmel, (1904) as against a probable 
yearly mean of about 48° for the Gulf. But we must remember in 
this connection that on the east coast of North America cyclonic at- 
mospheric disturbances move as a whole from the land out over the 
sea, not from sea to land, as they do over Western Europe, and con- 
sequently, that the coastal waters may be expected to take their tem- 
peratures from the land climate instead of the latter being governed 
by oceanic temperatures, as is the case in Europe. 
If the Gulf of Maine were an enclosed basin, we would expect its 
bottom temperature to be about the same as the mean annual tempera- 
ture of the surrounding land-mass, just as Nordgaard, (1903) has found 
it for the Norwegian fjords. And as a matter of fact, the lowest 
temperatures which we encountered in the Gulf are practically the 
same as the mean annual for northern New England, 2. e., that portion 
of the land mass from which the chilling winds of autumn and winter 
blow. The considerable snowfall must likewise be an active factor 
in chilling the surface water in winter, while the inrush of fresh snow- 
water, only a few degrees above freezing point, in spring, may be 
expected to show its effect in retarding the warming of the coast water 
as the season advances. Furthermore, the considerable thickness 
of the bottom water of uniform temperature in the western part of the 
Gulf, is good evidence of winter cooling, while our observations show 
that the temperature was lowest in the western half, just where cooling 
land winds and snow are most active, instead of in the eastern, where 
a northern current might be expected to show itself most clearly. 
Thus Verrill was probably correct in his contention that the waters 
of the Gulf are not abnormally cold, considering their geographic 
location, and the climate of the neighboring land mass. 
The possibility that cold northern water enters our Gulf in small 
amounts is not forbidden by the conclusion that the low temperature 
of the latter is chiefly due to winter cooling. On the contrary, the 
fact that the bottom temperatures on the coastal banks along the coast 
of Nova Scotia are much lower than at corresponding depths in the 
Gulf or further west, and that they decrease from southwest to north- 
