PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY OF THE GULF OF MAINE 
795 
First, in the basin to the north of the bank is the Gulf of Maine complex, rang- 
ing in salinity hereabouts from about 32 per mille at the surface to about 33.5 per 
mille at a depth of 200 meters and close to 34 per mille in the still deeper trough of 
the basin. The northern part of the bank is washed by the typical “banks” water, 
with a mean salinity of 32.5 to 33 per mille, which in the shoaler parts is kept nearly 
Stations 
Fig. 157. — Salinity profile running from the southeastern part of the gulf (station 10225), southward across the eastern 
end of Georges Bank (stations 10221 to 10224) to the continental slope (station 10220), July, 1914 
uniform, vertically, by tidal stirring. Over the seaward slope the zone of transi- 
tion to the much more saline water is condensed into so narrow a zone that the 
successive isohalines become nearly perpendicular on the distorted scale adopted for 
the profiles, their precise degree of obliquity depending, of course, on the proximity 
of the oceanic water to the south. Finally, at the offshore end true oceanic or 
