252 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



p. 35); and Engelhardt (1913, p. 9, chart B), thinks it certain that the 

 Labrador Current bathes our coast at least as far as New England. 



But in 1897 a new Hght was thrown on the subject by Schott, whose 

 analysis of the currents on the Grand Banks led him to conclude 

 that the chief source of our cold coast water was not the Labrador 

 Current, but water flowing out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence via Cabot 

 Straits. And his work was founded on so large a body of temperatures, 

 and current records taken by vessels at anchor on the Banks, that it 

 may well serve as the starting point of our modern knowledge of the 

 relationship of the Labrador Current to the Gulf Stream in that region. 

 The most important feature of Schott's work, from the present stand- 

 point, is his failure to find any evidence that the Labrador Current, 

 as such, flows southwest across the Grand Banks, although it follows 

 their eastern edge southward to the southern extremity. It is true, 

 he says, that a small amount of polar water turns westward, and flows 

 along the southern coast of Newfoundland ; but it enters the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence. And though movements of polar water toward the 

 southwest across the banks have been observed, he maintains that they 

 are too small in amount, and too irregular in occurrence, to be any- 

 thing more than local surface currents caused by the frequent strong 

 northeast winds. 



This is perhaps an extreme view, for as Kriimmel (1911) points out 

 part of the polar water which flows around the south coast of New- 

 foundland, joins the outflow from the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And 

 Kriimmel furthermore maintains that there must be a general tend- 

 ency for the polar water to flow southwestward across the Grand 

 Banks, and thus to reach the coast of Nova Scotia directly, instancing 

 the fact that icebergs, coming south with the Labrador Current, have 

 occasionally been known to drift southwest from the Grand Banks. 

 But Capt. C. E. Johnston (1913), whose experience as commander of 

 the U. S. Revenue Cutter on ice patrol duty on the Banks in 1913 and 

 1914 has given him unusual opportunities to study the currents in 

 that region, states that the "currents on the Grand Bank. . . .are 

 almost wholly tidal. In a general way they flood to the northward 

 and ebb to the southward. Winds drive them to the eastward or 

 westward, sometimes overcoming the strength of the tidal current"; 

 and we can hardly suppose that there is any constant movement of 

 polar water southwestward around the southern edge of the Grand 

 Banks, for although bergs have occasionally been known to drift for 

 long distances in that direction (Kriimmel, 1911), the general move- 

 ment of the ice, after reaching the southern point of the Bank, is just 



