PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY OP THE GULF OF MAINE 
539 
along the axis of this cold stratum then rose fairly uniformly from about 0.5° close 
to land to from 2.4° to 2.7° in the southern side of the basin, to 2.7° to 2.9° over 
Georges Bank, and to 3.1° over the continental slope, as just described. On the 
other hand, the water as warm as 5° that floods the greater part of the basin at 
depths greater than 120 to 150 meters did not then touch the northern slope of 
Georges Bank, off which the water was fractionally colder than 5° right down into 
the deepest fold of the trough (station 20064). 
The fact that the southern end of this profile crossed one of the chief breeding 
grounds for haddock in North American waters, and at the height of the spawning 
Stations „ 
e=> <— Yf co 
co oo oo oc 
Fia, 17. — Temperature profile crossing the northeastern part of the gulf, off the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, for March 
22 and 23, 1920 (stations 20080 to 20083) 
season, lends biological interest to the temperatures at stations 20061 to 20068. Evi- 
dently the eggs were being set free in water of about 2.5° to 2.7°. 
The boundaries of the comparatively warm (5°) bottom water in the eastern arm 
of the basin, for March, are outlined further by a profile from Maine to Nova Scotia, 
opposite the mouth of the Bay of Fundy (fig. 17, stations 20080 to 20083). Tem- 
peratures higher than 5° were confined to depths greater than 150 meters along this 
line, but the isotherm for 3° shows the warmer bottom water banking up against the 
