Adak to the Pribilof Islands. Bathythermograph observa- 

 tions were made every hour along a section from Adak north- 

 ward to 56°03'N, 176°38'W and then along a section east 

 northeastward to 56°36' N, 173°39'W. These sections (sections 

 A and B, fig. 13) are over the eastern end of the deep Bering 

 Sea basin, with the depth running at about 2100 fathoms at 

 most stations. The bathythermograph, therefore, suffices 

 in obtaining only a relatively small portion (300 to 400 feet) 

 of the vertical thermal structure of this region. It has been 

 shown, however, that the temperature and salinity structures 

 of the Bering Sea basin below 100 meters are very similar to 

 those in the subarctic region of the North Pacific* The mean 

 flow is northward through the channels of the Aleutian chain, 

 and the bathythermograph traces characteristic of most of 

 these observations in the southern Bering Sea are not unlike 

 those found in the subarctic water south of the Aleutians. 



A group of bathythermograph observations typical of this 

 region are shown in figure 14. The locations of the observa- 

 tion stations move northward from left to right. The thermo- 

 cline is more intense on observations taken farther north 

 (fig. 14c), but the mean temperatures do not change greatly. 



Two vertical cross sections of the temperature structure 

 have been constructed from these data. Temperature sections 

 A and B are shown in figures 15 and 16, respectively. In the 

 first five stations in section A, the slope of the isotherms 



*Sverdrup, Johnson, and Fleming, The Oceans (ref. 13), 

 pp. 732-733. 



TEMPERATURE IN °F. 

 40 45 50 35 40 45 35 40 



/ 

 



Figure 14. Bathythermograms 

 taken in the southern Bering Sea. 



