Persistent (>9 month) large-scale positive temperature (3-4%C), negative salintiy (0.1-0.3%) and positive dissolved oxygen (0.5-1 ml/1) subsurface anomalies characterize the El Ni¿o-induced onshore transport in the California Current during 1982-83. These anomalies, characteristic diagrams, and sign reversals in the salinity and oxygen anomalies are consistent only with enhanced onshore transport of Subarctic water from the offshore California Current. Onshore transport excludes poleward propagating Kelvin waves as a generation mechanism for the 1982-83 Californian ''El Ni¿o''. The data, however, support the conclusion (Simpson, 1983) that an anomalous basinwide atmospheric circulation produced the Californian ''El Ni¿o''.