THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 
9 
-f 0. 6°. Near the Oommander Islands, with the same surface temperature of -j- 9° C., 
-P 7. 1° was found at 25 meters and 4. 3° at 50 meters. We have here absolutely 
the same phenomenon as in the Japan Sea, viz, that the cold water predominates in 
the lower beds of the western imrtion of the sea. The identical phenomenon has been 
observed in the Okhotsk Sea and the Straits of Tartary. 
The bathymetric observations in Bering Sea, at stations Nos. lOS, 109, 110, and 
113, have established another peculiarity of this sea, viz, the presence in the dee[»er 
portions of warm water of high salinity. Near the coast of Kamchatka the increase 
in temperature is shown as follows: At station No. 108, from 0° O. at 200 meters to 
+ 3. 5° 0. at 400 meters; at station 109, from + 0. 0° 0. at 150 meters to + 2. O. 
at 175 meters and + 3. 7° 0. at 200 meters; at station 110, in longitude 105° 50' E., at 
a depth of 100 meters a temperature of -p 2° 0. was found, and at 150 meters and 
below, -p 3. 9° O. The details are shown in the accompanying diagram (pi. 3). 
These temj)eratures prove to us that the bed of warm water of great specihc 
gravity is found nearer the surface at the Oommander Islands than along the coast of 
Kamchatka. A similar phenomenon has also been observed in the Okhotsk Sea. In 
other words, the cold and less saline water in descending from north to south 
approaches the coast toward the western side of the sea and forces the warm water of 
high salinity to a greater dejith. 
Plate 3 shows a section of Bering Sea from the coasts of Kamchatka to the 
Commander Islands. The cold water here occupies an intermediate bed between the 
surface and a depth of 250 meters. As iu the Okhotsk Sea, the bed thickens toward 
the mainland coast and tapers off as it recedes from it. It will also be seen that this 
cold water, with a temperature lower than 0° 0., has a specific gravity of 1.0252 to 
1.0254. Where does this water come from ? Makarof concludes that as it can not 
come from the Pacific Ocean, which has no sucli teni])erature, it must descend from 
the surface. Since the surface water has a specific gravity of only about 1.0250, he 
suggests that the great salinity of this surface water is due to freezing iu winter. As 
to the route this water follows, he believes that, as indicated by the temi)eratures 
observed by the Tuscarora, it advances from the southwest along the coast of Kam- 
chatka and consequently also along the Kuril Islands. 
The surface temperatures of the western portion of Bering Sea are indicated on 
pi. 2, showing the existence of two cold zones, viz, one near Capes Tchaplin and 
Tchukotski, the other between Capes Navariu and St. Thaddieus. Everywliere else 
the cold water occupies the western part of Bering Sea and tlie warm water its eastern 
portion. In the other idaces the distribution of the temperature is pretty regular; 
it decreases gradually toward the north. The teiu])erature near Petropaulski is 
11° C., and near the island of St. Lawrence about 8° C., i. e., the mean temperature 
of August. 
Fragmentary as is our knowledge of the waters themselves in the western portion 
of Bering Sea, the bottom of the sea over which they fiow is hardly better known. In 
fact, until the U. S. Fish Commission stea,mer Albatross ran the three lines of deep-sea 
soundings in 1892 and 1895, the shai)e and nature of the bottom were even less known. 
Even to-day we do not know the depth of the passage between Kamchatka and the 
Commander Islands. The Eussiau and English men-of-war patrolling the seas around 
the islands have of late years added a number of soundings at 100 fathoms and under, 
so that it has been possible on the appended map (pi. 1) to trace the 100-fathom line 
