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confined to the vicinity of the Kuril Islands, where only, 

 however, it reaches the surface, but also occurs, gradually 

 diminishing in intensity, southward along the coast of Japan as 

 far as Tokyo and Sagami Bays, where it is represented by a 

 more or less marked seasonal rise in the upper level of the 

 cold bottom water. 



As the Kuro-Siwo approaches the Kuril Islands every 

 summer, so does the Gulf Stream approach the northeastern 

 coast of North America, and here a parallel to the region 

 represented in the Pacific by the Kuril Islands is furnished by 

 the coast line from Cape Cod northward to Nova Scotia. Along 

 this coast, as along the Pacific coast of the Kurils, the water 

 in summer is very cold, though the salinity is not particularly 

 high. 



Judging from a comparison with the conditions off northwest 

 Africa, southern California and the Kuril Islands, the coldness 

 of the water off this coast is most logically to be explained by 

 the action of the Gulf Stream in pulling to the surface north- 

 west of itself abyssal water, and at the same time drawing from 

 the north a considerable amount of coastal water of low salinity, 

 derived in part from the St. Lawrence river, and in part from 

 the Labrador current, which is extended southward just as the 

 Kamchatka current is drawn southward along the Kuril chain. 



As this strip of coast is very much less in length than the 

 Kuril Island chain, and the available supply of water to the 

 north is very much greater, moreover having no outlet toward 

 the west as has the Kamchatka current about Cape Lopatka, 

 the abyssal water is not drawn unmodified to the surface but, 

 thanks to the action of the very powerful tides, is mixed with 

 the light water from the north which, however, it helps to 

 cool. 



As evidence that in the Gulf of Maine the water is at least 

 partly of abyssal, and ultimately of antarctic, origin, it- may be 

 mentioned that here there occurs within 25 fathoms of the 

 surface a crinoid [Hathrometra tenella) closely related to another 

 species {Hathrometra exigua) occurring in from 5o to t 7 5 

 fathoms in the vicinity of Marion Island, in the antarctic regions 

 southeast of Africa. 



