BIGELOW: COAST WATER EXPLORATION OF 1913. 187 
over the seventy-five fathom curve; and there is every reason to as- 
sume that by a run of a very few miles further to the south Gulf Stream 
water of 35%o would have been found. Close to the shore of Long 
— Sa 
Island the salinity was only about 31.2%p, with an expansion of water 
fresher than 32.2%p off its eastern end. And there was a second tongue 
of comparatively low salinity abreast of Barnegat. On the other hand 
Gulf Stream water (35% ) was encountered on the surface at the outer 
edge of the continental slope off New Jersey, with a rise of salinity 
from 32.4% to 35.25%p in a distance of only twenty miles (Station 
10070 to Station 10071). 
Close to the New Jersey coast the salinity rose, north to south, 
from 31.2%o near New York to 32.2%p off Cape May. And the 
importance of Delaware Bay, like that of the Connecticut and Hudson 
Rivers, as a source of land water, was shown by the pronounced off 
shore swing of the curve of 32.2%p abreast of itsmouth. At the time 
of our visit its influence was evident for at least fifty miles from Cape 
May (Station 10072). The curves show a tongue of comparatively 
salt water approaching the shore north of Delaware Bay; and a much 
more pronounced one just south of it, where the curve of 33.5%p lies 
only thirty miles from land, good evidence that the Delaware water 
had but little effect either south or north of the Bay in July. The 
approach of water of high salinity toward the coast south of New 
York is further illustrated by the fact that off Cape Henlopen the 
curve of 33%po was within thirty-five miles of land instead of at a dis- 
| tance of eighty miles, as was the case abreast of Long Island. And 
| while this phenomenon is in part a concomitant of the steadily decreas- 
— 
ig breadth of the continental shelf, the water was salter over the 
| twenty-five fathom curve off Cape Henlopen than over the 100 
fathom curve off Long Island. 
The freshening effect of Chesapeake Bay on the surface is unmis- 
\takable; the water fifteen miles off its mouth being the freshest 
- (29.25%o) water encountered during the cruise. And the surface salin- 
\ity was only 32.2% over the 100 fathom curve, though 33.5%o water 
joceupied this relative position on the shelf only thirty miles further 
north. But the water from the Bay had little effect further seaward, for 
jin the next fifteen miles the salinity rose to 33.5%Q, 7. e., to practically 
the same saltness.as at the same relative position off Barnegat. 
The work south of Cape Cod occupied only about three weeks time; 
aence it is hardly to be expected that any considerable change in 
salinity would have taken place. And as a matter of fact the stations 
; the way north show no clear evidence of any. But water samples 
