SCIENTIFIC EESULTS 



37 



S]Mtsb(M'<::(Mi to fliiii MiiYon, in latitude 71° N.. longitude 8° W. ; 

 thence soutlnvestwai-d toward the coast of Iceland, thence westward 

 across Denniai'k Strait toward An<jfnia<>:ssalik, thence, narrowin*i\ to 

 Cape Farewell where the ice tends to con<!;regate around Farewell. 



The first of the east Greenland pack apj)ears at Scorsby Sound in 

 October, at An^irnuifrssalik in Xoveniber, and off Cape Farewell in 

 December or flainiarv. J^ut it seldom sets northward around the 

 cape to blockade Julianehaab Bay until the stronji northerly winds 

 al)ate in April.-- The wind is an im])ortant factor in its distribution. 

 Thus durin<>: northerly winds a stri]) of open water will appear next 

 to the coast, while the outer edo;e of the pack may lie To to 100 miles 

 ortshore. Normally, however, durin^i: the ice season the outer edge 

 of the ])ack around Cape Farewell lies about 60 miles out from the 

 coast. If the prevalent south wind is blowing, the " storis " -^ 

 reaches Ivigtut in March, Fiskernivs in A]5ril, where in bad ice years 

 it may reach as far north as Godthaab, 3()0 miles north of Cape 

 Farewell, from May to August. The i)ack, in a light ice year, how- 

 ever, will not reach further north than Cape Desolation, 140 miles 

 northwest of Cape Farewell. The ice tongue which so often stretches 

 northwest from Cape Farewell tends to bend slightly aw-ay from the 

 coast if undisturbed by the w ind, and sailing directions from Ivigtut 

 advise going north around it. unless the wind is on-shore, and coast- 

 ing back inside. The pack around Cape Farewell consists of glayons 

 of all sizes, and also of old hummocked floes as great as 100 feet in 

 width and 10 to iJO feet thick. In June and July wdien the " storis " 

 reaches its greatest abundance around Cape Farewell the edge of the 

 fields has been met 100 to 200 miles offshore. The best evidence of 

 the rate of progress of the east Greenland pack is the drifts of ships 

 which have been caught within its clutches. Such an experience 

 befell several vessels of the Dutch wdialing fleet in June. ITTT, 

 which, according to Irminger (1856. p. 36), drifted southward from 

 76° north, parallel to the coast through Denmark Strait at the 

 average rate of 11 to 1'2 miles i)er day (see lig. 14, p. 27). The 

 Ha/isa, one of the vessels of the German north polar expedition 

 1869-70, was crushed October 28, 1869, in latitude 70° 50' N., well 

 within the grip of the pack off' northeast Greenland. The sur- 

 vivors drifted on the ice and in a whaleboat all the way down 

 the coast, and around Cape Farewell, and finally landed the follow- 

 ing year at Frederickshaab. in southwest Greenland. The average 

 rate of diift was 4 to 5 miles per day. A l)ottle thrown overboard 

 from a ship near Denmark Harbor, latitude 77° 12' N., longitude 

 16° 00' W., in northeast Greenland, was recovered a year later in the 



-Brooks and Queiinell (1928. p. 9) show the monthly variation in tlie amount "f paelv 

 drifting;- past Iceland during the period 1901 to 1924 : 



These figures show that the ice season at Iceland normally extends from January to 

 July, with March, .\pril. May. and June being the four heaviest ice months. 



-•'Storis. liierally "large ice."' is the teini used liy the Danes to refer to the iiack in 

 the east (jireenland current wliich is heavier tliau tin' "floes that have formed locally. 



