BIGELOW: COAST WATER EXPLORATION OF 1913. 208 
the reverse, 2. e., toward the east and northeast, as graphically de- 
scribed by Captain Johnston (1913). 
_ At present it seems safe to say that although there may be sporadic 
movements of Labrador Current water from the Grand Banks toward 
Nova Scotia, there is no constant current in that direction; and that 
the increment of polar water which reaches our coasts in that way, plus 
the polar water which joins the Cabot Current at Cabot Strait is too 
small in amount to have much effect on temperatures and salinities off 
New England. And it certainly has very little influence on the plank- 
ton west of Nova Scotia, where true polar organisms, such as char- 
acterize the plankton of the Labrador Current, are seldom recorded. 
The existence of an outflow from the Gulf of St. Lawrence via 
Cabot Straits has been recognized by oceanographers for many years 
’ (Maury, 1855); but Schott (1897) seems to have been the first to 
emphasize its importance. Fortunately we now have considerable 
data as to its volume and physical characters, thanks to the tidal and 
current observations, temperatures and densities, taken by the Tidal 
Survey of Canada under the direction of Dr. W. B. Dawson (1896- 
1913). These establish a constant outflow along the south side of 
Cabot Straits, with velocities as high as 1-2 knots per hour between 
Cape North and St. Paul Id., termed the “Cape Breton current” by 
Dawson, but for which the earlier name, “Cabot Current”’ is appro- 
priate; and an inflow along the north side of the Strait. The Cabot 
Current has sometimes been explained as polar water, entering the 
Gulf via the Straits of Belle Isle, and flowing southerly along the west 
coast of Newfoundland. But Dawson’s (1907) survey of the Straits 
of Belle Isle proved that no great volume of water enters the Gulf 
from that quarter, there being very little balance of inflow over out- 
flow, if any, in summer, though with a possibility of rather greater 
influx in early spring. The distribution of temperature in the Gulf 
likewise shows little or no effect of polar water, for in summer polar 
temperatures are not found within the Straits of Belle Isle (Kriimmel, 
1907, Dawson, 1907). And there is no evidence that such water as 
does enter via the latter flows southerly along the Newfoundland 
coast, but just the reverse, because the current along this coast is from 
south to north caused by the water which enters the Gulf along the 
north side of Cabot Straits. To enter further into Dawson’s very inter- 
| esting results is not necessary since the Gulf of St. Lawrence concerns 
_us here only in its relation to the coastal water further south. What 
is important is that his work demonstrates beyond a doubt that the 
water which flows out through Cabot Straits is not polar, but true 
