254 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
coast water. ‘True, the Cabot Current contains small amounts of 
polar water, both from the Straits of Belle Isle, and from the Labrador 
Current via the south coast of Newfoundland, but this is modified 
past recognition in the general circulation of the Gulf. (For an excel- 
lent summary of Dawson’s results, and of the general circulation of 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, see Nature, April 18, 1901, p. 601). 
The amount of outflow through Cabot Straits must be considerable 
for the Cabot Current is at least thirty miles broad abreast of Cape 
North, with a velocity of from .5 knot to 2 knots per hour on the sur- 
face (Dawson, 1913, p. 12). Its temperature is particularly charae- 
teristic in summer when the water is coldest (31°-33°) at about fifty 
fathoms, with warmer water (37°-40°) below at 100 fathoms, 39°-40° 
at 150 fathoms, while the surface warms to 58°-60° (Dawson, 1913, 
p. 37). And the discovery, by the ALBATROSS in July, 1885 (Town- — 
send, 1901) of a corresponding layer of minimum temperature, at 
about the same depth, off the east coast of Nova Scotia, ranging from 
about 32° opposite Cape Breton to 35° off Halifax, and 39° off Cape | 
Sable, with warmer water at greater depths, shows its influence along | 
that part of the Coast. Surface temperature likewise indicates that 
the Cabot Current flows toward the southwest over the continental 
shelf (Schott, 1897); and so does salinity, for as Dickson (1901) has 
shown, water with a salinity of 32% or less, is continuous along the | 
coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Maine in spring | 
and summer, though often separated from the equally fresh water over | 
the Newfoundland banks by a salter wedge. And this salt wedge is — 
normal for the whole year, according to Schott (1902, plate 33), | 
though it may be temporarily obscured, as, for example in August — 
1897 (Dickson, 1901); and, finally, a southwesterly current has often — 
been observed by mariners off the Nova Scotian coast. But al- 
though a southwesterly long-shore movement of St. Lawrence water 
is incontestable, it is by no means clear how far it can be traced asa _ 
recognizable current. According to Schott (1897) it makes its effect | 
felt in the form of low temperatures to the neighborhood of New York. — 
But according to the statement in the Nova Scotia and Bay of | 
Fundy Pilot (British Admiralty, 1903), based on many years data of | 
greater or less value, obtained by mariners, no true southwesterly | 
current can be distinguished beyond Cape Sable, the movements of 
the surface water over George’s Bank being wholly governed by tide | 
and wind. And the work of our own coast survey, mentioned above | 
(p. 231) has failed to reveal any dominant movement of water from 
northeast to southwest over George’s Bank. Acconqaae to the British — 
