524 Professor Boivard T. Barms [May 31, 



the entire extent of the coastline of Greenland, but the huge masses 

 which push out into the open sea arise either on the west coast 

 between Disco Bay and Smith Sound, or on the east coast south of 

 the parallel of 68\ Besides the icebergs formed from the Greenland 

 glaciers, a few come around Cape Farewell from the Spitzbergen 

 Sea, and some may be traced from Hudson's Bay. 



Movement of Ice from the Arctic Eegions. 



The Labrador current flows southward along the coasts of Baffin 

 Land and Labrador. The average rate is from 10 to 36 miles per 

 day, but occasionally it ceases altogether,* As soon as free the 

 icebergs find their way into the Arctic current, and float gradually 

 southward. The journey is by no means an easy one, and few bergs 

 survive. There are many mishaps, such as grounding in the Arctic 

 basin with ultimate breaking up, stranding along the Labrador coast, 

 where destruction takes place, and falling to pieces entirely in the 

 open sea. Only a small percentage ever reach the Grand Bank and 

 the routes of the transatlantic liners, so many delays attend their 

 journey. It is well known that many bergs seen in any one season 

 may have been produced several seasons before. Taking the Labrador 

 current as 10 miles per day, a berg once formed and drifting freely 

 would make the journey southward in from four to five months. 

 The difference in time of two bergs reaching a low latitude may 

 cover a period of one or two years even when these start on the 

 same day, so devious are the paths into whicli chance may direct these 

 floating masses. Under-currents affect the largest icebergs, and 

 frequently they are seen to move backward against the wind and 

 surface water. Extensive field ice offers an obstruction to the move- 

 ments of the bergs, hence the number met with from one season 

 to another must depend on the mildness or severity of the previous 

 summer in the North. 



The Labrador Current. 



No part of the oceans of the world is of so much interest to 

 mankind as this cold Arctic current. It brings down the cold of 

 the North to temper the heat of the Tropics, and thus tends to equalise 

 the temperature of the world. It is the home and feeding-ground 

 of the world's greatest supply of fish food, and supports more marine 

 life than any other part of the world. It conveys each year south- 

 ward the greatest menace to the navigator in the form of huge ice- 

 bergs, and it influences the entire eastern coast of Canada. In 

 spite of all this there has been little study of this current. Why, 

 may we ask, have the Governments of the world neglected to obtain 



* U.S. Hydrographic Report, 1909. 



