406 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
These six profiles, however, are worth all the summer’s work — because they give us , 
a fair outline of the subject in hand. They are very suggestive of inquiries to be ' 
pushed further: and, having these, more careful attention can be given to the study of 
the details of the temperature areas in another season. j 
In some respects we were working in the dark. We knew nothing except the il 
general laws given by the study of isolated series of temperatures and densities. The i 
relations which are supposed to exist between the cold current and the Gulf Stream j 
are sufficiently vague to please or puzzle as the case may be. We have perhaps 
obtained clearer views upon this subject, but in any event, in spite of the lacunm which ' 
have been developed in our work by the plotting and study of the data we collected, i; 
we have enough information to lead to profitable investigation in the coming summer.' ' 
It is true we may not find the same distribution of temperature areas, and if we do 
not the further problem of why the changes have occurred will become a fruitful 
source of inquiry. . ' 
It will be noticed that our serial temperatures in deep water reached to a depth: 
of 500 fathoms (see records). We were sure that at this depth we would be beyond 
the region of fluctuations, as the changes noticed below this point are very slight.?' j 
The observations show that we could have stopped at 150 or 200 fathoms, and have 
been perfectly safe — but we were afraid of missing some element in the study of the : I 
temperatures, and preferred to drag a deep net rather than lose it. One thing would* ’ 
have been desirable, viz, a more systematic and extended study of the specific gravi- 
ties at the various depths, particularly at the edge of the continental platform. We . 
had no reason to suspect the existence of certain facts which struck us as peculiar 1 
when our work developed towards the latter part of the summer, and if we had been^ « 
able to give a little more time to the work we should have tested these conditions more jj 
carefully. One more line out and back would have been a great consolation to us, 1 
but it could not be; and it was well that we did not attempt this last trip, as it is i ; 
doubtful whether the results obtained in such bad weather as was experienced after j ' 
our work closed would have been of much value. j 
It will be seen by reference to the map of stations occupied by the Grampus during 
the summer that many other parts of lines were made, but these were not of sufficient 
length to give any additional light upon the subject, and hence have been omitted. : 
They do not influence the results one way or the other. If they had crossed the edge j 
of the continental platform they would have been interesting, but they are generally , 
fragments at one end or the other of lines, and sometimes these portions, even if they 
happened to be upon the same line, were made at dates too widely separated to be of I 
any value for our purpose; their omission is therefore no great loss. i 
The scale adopted, about 1 in 350, may seem excessive, but after many experiments j 
it was chosen because the features of the temperature curves were best shown by it. | 
The jjrofiles do not give the temperatures or specific gravities below 150 fathoms, 
as these will be seen from the records to vary but little below this depth. All the 
data collected, however, have been published in tabular form in the records, for future 
reference. | 
In the profiles the bathyisothermal lines of 70°, 65°, 60°, and 50° have been given ' 
in the first four charts, and in the others only those of 70°, 60°, and 50°, as these lines 
develop the principal features of the temperatures in each instance. 
