Several previous oceanographic cruises .notably those 

 conducted by the U. S. Coast Guard in 1934 (see list of 

 references) and in 1937-1938, have made fairly complete 

 investigations of the eastern Bering Sea and Norton Sound. 

 The present cruise, however, was the first cruise on which 

 extensive use was made of the. bathythermograph, and hence 

 much greater detail of the vertical temperature structure was 

 obtained than on the previous cruises. 



The same general distribution of physical variables was 

 observed in the Bering Sea as on the previous cruises. The 

 isolines of temperature and salinity run approximately paral- 

 lel to the Alaskan coast. The bathythermograph sections 

 taken in the southern Bering Sea tend to confirm the exist- 

 ence of clockwise eddy circulation at about 56°N, l65°W. 

 Previous investigations 7 have reported the existence of simi- 

 lar eddies in this region of the Bering Sea. 



The nature of the circulation as indicated by previous 

 current observations and by dynamic computations of the 

 relative mass distribution is further confirmed by the study 

 of the temperature-salinity relationships at the stations in 

 the Bering Sea and their relation to the temperature-salinity 

 diagram for the subarctic water found south of the Aleutians. 

 This circulation (see fig. 51) carries water from the surface 

 layers south of the Aleutians through the Aleutian chain and 

 northward in the eastern Bering Sea towards, and thence 

 through, the Bering Strait. 



Though the previous investigators have taken several 

 sections across Bering Strait, the greater detail of the tem- 

 perature data from the bathythermograph makes the line of 

 stations obtained by the USS NEREUS across the Strait of some 

 additional importance. The vertical sections of temperature 

 and salinity distinctly show the strong northward flow through 

 the Bering Strait. 



The data taken in the Chukchi Sea, especially, represents 

 a considerable increase in physical oceanographic information 

 concerning this area. The U. S. Coast. Guard cruises in the 

 summers of 1937 and 1938 occupied a number of stations 

 along the Alaskan coast from Bering Strait nearly to Point 

 Barrow, but these data are not sufficient to show the lateral 

 distribution of the physical variables. Sverdrup in the MAUD 

 obtained considerable data between Herald Shoal and Wrangell 

 Island but occupied only two hydrographic stations east of 

 170°W in the Chukchi Sea. On the basis of these data, Sverdrup 

 made several conclusions concerning the circulation in the 

 Chukchi Sea. The data taken by the USS NEREUS confirm 

 some of the conclusions but fail to confirm completely some 



