and forms the so-called Tsu-Shima current ; the third turns 

 westward and resembles in its general characteristics a similar 

 branch which is given off from the Kuro-Siwo south of 

 Formosa (Taiwan). 



The Tsu-Shima current does not occupy the entire width 

 of the Korean Straits, for there is a zone of cold water with 

 a low specific gravity along the Korean coast which is part 

 of a similar zone occupying the entire western part of the 

 Sea of Japan. 



On entering the Sea of Japan through the Korean Straits, 

 the Tsu-Shima current turns to the right and runs north- 

 eastward along the Japanese coast, reaching the Straits of 

 Tsugaru, through which a large amount of water flows to the 

 eastward from the Sea of Japan to the Pacific ; continuing 

 further toward the northeast, the greater part of what remains 

 of the Tsu-Shima current flows through the Straits of La 

 Perouse into the Sea of Okhotsk, and a comparatively small 

 portion continues northward along the west coast of Sakhalin. 



Along the east coast of the island of Sakhalin there is a 

 very cold current of low salinity which, passing through the 

 Straits of La Perouse, is continued down the Asiatic side 

 of the Sea of Japan to, or even through, the Korean Straits. 

 This current occupies a fairly broad strip at the surface, but 

 at the bottom a much narrower strip, so that the line of 

 division between it and the Tsu-Shima current slopes strongly 

 downward toward the west. 



All of the water both of the Sea of Japan and of the Sea of 

 Okhotsk in derived from these two sources, from a branch of 

 the Kuro-Siwo passing through the Straits of Korea, which 

 supplies the warmer water of the central and eastern portions, 

 and also the abyssal water (which, though cooler, has the same 

 salinity), and from the current which flows southward along 

 the shore of Kamchatka, enters the Okhotsk Sea and, keeping 

 to its western side, passes through the Straits of La Perouse 

 and continues southward along the Asiatic shores of the Sea 

 of Japan. 



Thus it happens that the crinoids characteristic of the 



(285) 



