312 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XV, July 1961 
Fig. 1 . Numbered lagoons sampled in the Cape Thompson, 
Alaska area. Based on U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Topographic 
Map T-9425 Alaska. 
while obtaining the deeper hauls and the water 
samples. Most surface hauls were made by wad- 
ing along shore with the net attached to the 
end of a pole. 
Lagoons 
The position, approximate size, and identi- 
fication of the lagoons sampled are shown in 
Figure 1. Cape Thompson divides them geo- 
graphically into a northern and a southern 
group, as numbered in Figure 1. The only lagoon 
for which a name occurs on U.S.C. and G.S. 
Topographic Map T-9'423, on which Figure 1 
is based, is Tusikpok, which corresponds to no. 
6 south. All of the lagoons are shallow; the 
depths at the positions of sampling (about one- 
half the distance across the lagoon) were from 
1.3 to 3 m., and, as anticipated from wind con- 
ditions and shallowness, they showed only mod- 
erate or no thermal or haline stratification ex- 
cept in no. 2 south where the salinity at the 
bottom was 1.65 per mille higher than that at 
the surface (Table 1). It is clear that they are 
at times subject to invasion of salt water from 
the sea. This is evidenced by the brackish water 
of some, by high wave-washed channels on the 
gravel berms separating the lagoons from the 
sea, and, in several instances, by the presence of 
marine and brackish water animals found in 
the plankton of some lagoons. Lagoons no. 2 
