APPENDIX 565 



the vicinity of the Roman Catholic Mission. The density varied usually 

 between I'ooo and I'oio, the water being quite fresh after heavy rains 

 inland. Though the density was usually greatest at high water, this was by 

 no means always the case. The temperature of the water in dry weather 

 varied from 79° to 84° F. With the river in flood after heavy rains it fell 

 to 75° and 76°. As a rule, the fresher the water the lower the temperature, 

 but this was not invariable. There was evidence of super-heating in the 

 estuary, the water there having sometimes a temperature of 82° or 83°, 

 when the water higher up the river as far as Viria was two or three degrees 

 cooler, the sea-temperature being 79° to 80°. The average temperature of 

 the water of the estuary during the season would be 80 to 81°. 



(b) The Estuary of the Rio Guayas, also known as the Guayaquil River. 

 — My observations were made in the last week of February and in the first 

 half of March, 1904. Whilst the sea-temperature a few miles off the 

 Ecuador coast varied from 76° to 80° F., the water of the estuary from the 

 mouth up to Guayaquil ranged from 79° to 86°, whilst rather higher up the 

 river the temperature was about 79° or 80°- The super-heating of the 

 estuary is thus directly indicated. It was well marked in the lower part of 

 the estuary during one of my ascents of the river. 



Surface-temperatures Z Sea-temperature 5-10 miles off the mouth 797 



of estuary of the Estuary-temperature at the mouth, off Puna 827 



Guayaquil River, , „ „ 3 miles above „ 84-4 



March 13, 1904, 1 „ „ 15 „ „ „ 86-5 



J3 , 3) ^5 3) 'J 33 ^^ 5 



,, „ off Guayaquil 81 '8 



The water of the estuary was, as a rule, cooler with the ebbing tide. 



The density of the estuary-water at the mouth opposite Puna during 

 the two days the ship was in quarantine ranged from i'oo4 to i-oi6, being 

 generally about i-oio, and Salter with the up-going tide. Off Guayaquil 

 the water during the ebbing tide was quite fresh and, from an Ecuadorian 

 Standpoint only, potable, whilst at high water it may be a little brackish. 

 The sea-water has much freer access to the channels in the mangrove- 

 district at the back of the city of Guayaquil, where at high water I found 

 the density to be 1-014. 



Off Puna, on Feb. 25, I noticed that the surface-current which was 

 running down the stream was from one to two fathoms deep, whilst below 

 it was a strong current running up the river which carried my thermometer 

 up against the surface-current. 



NOTE 39 (page 82) 

 On the Pacific Species of Strongylodon 

 Hillebrand in his Hawaiian Flora, following Seemann, regards 

 S. lucidum. Seem., and S. ruber, Vogel, as one species found in Fiji, 



II a.m. to \ p.7n. . 

 tide running up. 



