SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 



43 



whalers the hay is characterized by two distinct areas of sea ice, 

 respectively called " west ice " and " middle ice " from their loca- 

 tions. Mecking (1906, p. 1(U) basing his assumptions largely upon 

 the drift of the Fox describes the bay as split by two packs. The 

 easternmost is composed largely of ice from jNIelville Bay and from 

 the east side of Smith Sound. The west ice is said to come from the 

 west side of Smith Sound, from Jones Sound, from Lancaster Sound, 

 and from the Baffin Land coast. The " middle ice " loomed espe- 

 cially large in the eyes of the whalers because it often obstructed their 

 path, and threatened their profits. The separation of the sea ice of 

 Baffin Bay. however, into two definite sections is not borne out by a 

 careful anal5'sis of conditions as a whole, nor would it logically 



Baffin Bay Pack Ice 



Figure 21. — The eastorn edse of the Baffin Land pack .Tuly 3. 1928, in latitude 67° 

 N., longitude 58° W.. 70 miles east of Cape Dier, Baffin Land. At this time the 

 western half of the neck of Davis Strait being ice decked and the eastern half, 

 open water, reflects the underlying circulation of these interesting waters. The 

 fact that the ice rises above the main deck of the Godthaab is striking evidence 

 of the great thickness of the pack ice in Baffin Bay. (Photograph by Commander 

 E. Riis-Cartensen of the OodtJiaab expedition.) 



result from the behavior of the ice or from the factors influencing 

 the latter. What the whalers called west ice is the most tightly 

 j^acked ])art of the cover, naturally to be found hugging the Baffin 

 Land coast. Middle ice probably refers to that part of the pack that 

 the winds and slow cyclonic circulation of the bay tend to collect in 

 the central and even in the Melville Bay .section. The designation of 

 •' middle " to the position of the pack is, moreover, somewhat accentu- 

 ated 1)V the widening of a lead of open water around the sliores of 

 Baffin Bay in late summer. The west ice represents the heavy back- 

 bone of the pack. Avhile the middle ice is merely the outer fields sub- 

 ject to Avider annual variations. The supply for both comes from the 

 upper reaches of Smith Sound, from the water arms of thf Ameri- 

 can Archipelago via Jones Sound. Lancaster Sound, and Eclipse 



