December 30, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



941 



FROBLEMS OF PHYSIOGRAPHY CONCERNING 



SALINITY AND TEMPERATURE OF 



THE PACIFIC OCEAN* 



BERING SEA. 



DiAGEAM N"o. 1 shows the mean temper- 

 atures and densities in the deeper parts of 

 Bering Sea to the southward of the Pribilof 

 Islands. It will be noticed that the density 

 increases from 1.0241 at the surface to 

 1.0257 at the depth of 1,000 fathoms and 

 according to a single observation to 1.0261 

 in 1998 fathoms at the bottom of the 

 sea. We attribute the low density at the 

 surface to a copious precipitation and to 

 the discharge of several large rivers, nota- 

 ' bly the Yukon. This tendency towards a 

 decrease of the density is counteracted by 

 an undercurrent from the Northwest Pacific 

 which carries a supply of salt. The relation 

 of the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic 

 Ocean furnishes an instructive illustration 

 of the way in which salt and heat are con- 

 veyed from one sea to another ; the same 

 salt which is carried into the Mediterranean 

 by a surface current is taken out again by 

 a warm undercurrent which spreads out 

 over an area extending from Gibraltar to 

 beyond the middle of the Atlantic and, at 

 the same time, sinks to depths below 1,500 

 fathoms. The Kuro Siwo, the great carrier 

 of salt and heat in the North Pacific, does 

 not, as a surface current, reach beyond 

 42 of Latitude, whence it passes northward 

 beneath the surface, losing both heat and 

 salt by its contact with colder and lighter 

 water, and continues to sink as it advances 

 until in the noted accumulation of salt in the 

 deeper parts of Bering Sea we recognize the 

 last traces of that warm and briny current. 

 Lieut. Comm'dr Moser in 1896 found the 

 depth of the channel between Bering Is- 

 land and Kamchatka to be 3,117 fathoms 

 instead of less than 500, as has been here- 



* Abstract of a paper prepared for publication in 

 the Annual Eeport of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey for 1898 and Peiermanii's Geogr. JIUi. 



Temper tLCwra ~ arui DcnsiXy 



