THE OCEAN CURRENTS AROUND AUSTRALIA. 193 



now proposed, 1 has a width of about 350 or 400 miles, at 

 Latitude 34° South, and a depth of about 100 fathoms. Its 

 velocity on the New South Wales coast is about \\ knots at 

 the littoral and about 2 knots in the offing, at all times and 

 seasons, and at all the salient points from Point Danger to 

 Jervis Bay, its speed and direction have been measured or 

 observed. On the littoral, the speed is, of course, dimin- 

 ished and the direction even reversed, on account of the 

 current meeting headlands of varying form, but these 

 return currents extend but a few miles, and are of local 

 importance only. 2 



On the west coast of New Zealand the temperature of 

 the stream is from 8° to 10° Fah. warmer than on the east 

 coast, but the information available is not sufficient to 

 enable us to state its dimensions. 3 



Between Jervis Bay and Bass Strait the direction and 

 velocity of this current are variable, as it is very liable to 

 interference by an extension northerly of that part of the 

 Southern Oceau current flowing easterly through Bass' 

 Strait. The area between the shore line and the western 

 edge of the Tasman current, is alternately occupied by 

 branches of the warm or the cold water, according as the 

 wind blows from the south-west or from the south-east 

 quadrant. 



The western equatorial drift in the eastern South Pacific 

 caused by the south-east Trades, will be found to extend 

 to about latitude 20° or 22° South, and as before described, 



1 The title Notonectian Current bas been proposed for this stream by- 

 Mr. Charles Hedley, f.l s.. but the name does not appeal to the writer 

 either as descriptive or distinctive. There are several southerly flowing 

 currents in the ocean, so that the term Notonectian is not distinctive, 

 and as this one has first a westerly course, then southerly, then easterly 

 and finally northerly and north-westerly to its termination or extinction, 

 it cannot be said to be descriptive. 



3 The Bar Harbours of New South AVales, by G. H. Halligan, Min. and 

 Pro. Inst. C.E., Vols. 184-5. 



3 Bep. Aust. Assoc. Adv. Science, Christchurch, N.Z., 1891. 



M— October 5, 1921. 



