Intensity and Fourier spectra of refracted and of bottom‐reflected acoustic arrivals in the Mediterranean Sea south of Cyprus at ranges between 16 and 20.4 NM (nautical miles) are presented, together with the most probable sound‐velocity profile and the near‐surface temperature structure. The arrival structure and relationship between pulse travel time and range indicate that most of the 100‐ to 800‐cps energy contributing to an arrival travels along paths similar to rays, but we find that, below 600 cps, there are frequency differences in the locations of these paths. The discovery of these frequency differences causes us to withdraw the postulate of scattering advanced in our first paper of this title and replace it with one of diffraction. According to Officer [Introduction to the Theory of Sound Transmission, McGraw‐Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, 1958), Chap. 2], such differences can be caused by diffraction occurring at depths where the absolute value |λ0(δc′/c)| of the ratio of the fractional change δc′, in the velocity gradient over a wavelength, to the velocity gradientc/λ0is largest. Our results indicate that the diffraction is observable in the convergence zone if |λ0(δc′/c)| at such depths is approximately 5×10−4or greater.