- i3 - 



Acajutla and Point Aguja, Peru, appears to be free from any 

 large oceanic currents. 



The South Pacific, Peruvian or Humbolt current strikes 

 the South American coast at about Chiloe' Island, a part being 

 deflected northward along the shores to Point Aguja, Peru, 

 where it is deflected toward the Galapagos Islands. Another 

 part is deflected southward, and sweeps the coast of South 

 America from Chiloe Island to the Straits of Magellan. 



The Kuro-Siwo is a comparatively deep current, carrying 

 an enormous volume of water, and it sweeps the bottom at 

 some distance from the shores of Japan. But the other surface 

 currents of the equatorial and north Pacific, especially those 

 on the American coast, are all superficial. 



Comparison of the Conditions in the Sea of Japan, 

 the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Bering Sea, with those 



in the Pacific. 



Makaroff suggested that the deep water of the Pacific is of 

 antarctic origin, and Bishop has suggested that the cold water 

 off the California coast as well as the deep water of the Pacific 

 is of antarctic origin, deriving the latter through the former. 



It seems to me that we may arrive at the most logical con- 

 clusions regarding the broader aspects of the oceanography of 

 the Pacific basin by reasoning from what we know of the 

 similar, though much smaller, basins containing the Okhotsk, 

 Bering and Japanese Seas, and then testing our results with 

 the data supplied by the distribution of the characteristic 

 organisms. 



In the Sea of Japan a heavy (warm) water enters through the 

 Korean Straits, fills all of the deeper portions and, impelled 

 by the rotation of the earth, keeps to the right and forms a 

 broad current which proceeds rapidly northward along the 

 Japanese coast ; superposed upon this are certain small currents, 

 such as that from the entrance to the Inland Sea, which merely 

 serve to conceal it from surface observation. In the Sea of 



(285) 



