— 2 4 — 



from the southwesternmost part of the Atlantic, Indian and 

 Pacific Oceans, that the antarctic regions derive their water, 

 the deep water in these localities being gradually drawn to the 

 surface and becoming the water of the circumpolar antarctic 

 current as a result of the unstable equilibrium produced by the 

 enormous loss of water northward from the antarctic current 

 through the Humbolt, Benguela and Australian currents. 



The rise of the abyssal water in these regions is undoubt- 

 edly assisted by the turning eastward of the south equatorial 

 currents, the Brazilian, Mozambique and Madagascar, and East 

 Australian currents, as a result of the rotation of the earth ; 

 the turning eastward of these currents tends to cause the 

 abyssal water beneath and south of them to come to the surface, 

 in exactly the same manner as has already been explained in 

 treating of the océanographie conditions off southern California 

 and northwestern Africa, and off the Kurils and New England. 



The identity of the antarctic and the abyssal water of the 

 remainder of the oceanic areas is therefore due to the fact that 

 the antarctic derives its water from the abysses of the Pacific, 

 Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and not to the fact, commonly 

 accepted, that the antarctic supplies the abysses with water. 



In this connection it is interesting to note that all of the 

 crinoids of the antarctic represent types well know as inhabi- 

 tants of the abysses in other parts of the world. Even the littoral 

 species are most nearly related to species occuring in 1200 

 fathoms or more in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of 

 Africa. There is no antarctic crinoid fauna as distinct from the 

 abyssal crinoid fauna of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian 

 Oceans. 



The antarctic seas are oceanographically really an integral 

 part of the abysses of the oceans to the north, and the antarctic 

 currents are an integral part of the circulation of the abyssal 

 water of the remainder of the globe, with no relation to the 

 superficial circulation further than giving rise to the Humbolt, 

 Benguela and Australian currents which, after a longer or 

 shorter course as surface (as well as deep) currents, plunge 

 beneath the surface out of sight. 



