﻿52 Canadian Record of Science. 



Labrador coast, at whicli tests of the currents were made, 

 was three miles distant, and yet the position in which we 

 would expect to find this cold branch current, if it does 

 exist, is comparatively close to this Labrador coast, where 

 the water is colder and deeper. 



An instance to some extent parallel to that of the Gulf 

 St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean is the Black Sea in 

 its relations to the Mediterranean Sea. There is a great 

 body of fresh water poured daily into the Black Sea by the 

 Danube, the Dnieper and other rivers, but even after 

 taking into account the enormous evaporation constantly 

 going on over the broad area which the sea presents, there 

 is a slight outward surface current through the Dar- 

 danelles. On the other hand, there is also a current 

 inward which is beneath and saline, and which, Dr. 

 Carpenter explains in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, is 

 produced by the outward surface current creating down- 

 ward and therefore lateral pressure on the Mediterranean 

 waters, causing a current inward through the Dardanelles. 

 Dr. Carpenter adds : " We have here a pregnant instance 

 of the slight differences in level and salinity to produce 

 even rapid movements of considerable bodies of water, 

 and a strong confirmation of the doctrine that differences 

 of density produced by temperature are adequate to give 

 rise to still larger though slower movements of the same 

 kind in the great ocean basins." 



As bearing on the subject, Mr. Dawson has taken both 

 surface and deep water temperatures at different points 

 on three cross sections of the Straits of Belle Isle and one 

 cross section at Cabot Straits, between Newfoundland and 

 the Cape Breton coast. These temperatures are very 

 interesting and establish the conclusions that the colder 

 waters are always deflected against the Labrador or 

 northern side of the Straits of Belle Isle, and against the 

 Newfoundland or northern side of Cabot's Straits, whilst 

 the warmer waters press against the southern sides in 



