64 THE L.\BKADOR PENINSULA. chap. xxiv. 



becomes cooled by mixture with the cold water below, 

 during the prevalence of winds, or by the action of cur- 

 rents meeting with shoals, occasions dense fogs, which 

 are often very low and do not extend above forty or 

 fifty feet above the level of the sea, so that, although 

 from the deck objects at a distance of fifty yards may 

 be hidden, yet they may be plainly seen by a per- 

 son up the rigging. The high fogs whicli accompany 

 easterly gales extend high up into the atmosphere ; they 

 are not so dense as low fogs, but sometimes last for seve- 

 ral days in succession. It is during calms that the low 

 dense fogs occur, and as long as they last, the influence 

 of the currents described may bring vessels into dangerous 

 proximity to the coast. 



Admkal Bayfield throws out the suggestion tliat one 

 of the chief causes which produce fogs in the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, may also account for the fogs on the banks 

 of Newfoundland. 



' May not the low temperature often found over shoals 

 in the sea be attributed to a similar cause, and especially 

 the lower temperature of the water on the bank of 'New- 

 foundland as compare^l with the neighbouring sea ? for 

 the great current, wliich brings icebergs down along 

 the coast of Labrador from the northward, must meet 

 with obstruction in its course to the southward from these 

 banks, and the cold water, in consequence, be forced to 

 the surface ; and, if this be so, we may probably find a 

 reason for the prevalence of fogs upon these banks.' 



The average depth of the great bank is forty fathoms ; 

 on its south-east side it slopes hke a wall rising from the 

 floor of the ocean at a depth exceeding 110 fathoms. 



