SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 49 



Tli*^ (Irainajie area of sea ice to Baffin Bay extends hundreds of 

 miles into th • trihutarv sounds and straits of the American Archi- 

 j)ehi^(i. One of the hu'<rest streams of pack is discharged into Baffin 

 Bay through Barrow Strait and Lancaster Sound. The drift of the 

 two ice-beset ships Adraticc and Rcticuc of the U. S. (.xrinnell expe- 

 dition in 1850 (see table on p. 47) shows the general direction of 

 their courses. Kane (1854, p. ^'I'l) states that the rate of drift of 

 these ships with the pack was approximately 2.5 miles per day during 

 October in the west end of Lancaster Sound. It increased to 3 miles 

 per day during December in the mouth of the sound and attained a 

 maximum rate of 5 miles per (hiy otf the northeast coast of Baffin 

 Land in January. The British ship Resolute beset in the same 

 waterway was carried halfway across the archipelago to Davis 

 Strait in one season. Mecking (1906, p. 27), after examining the 

 records of many of the searchers for Franklin shows that much ice 

 must be carrietl through the archipelago into Baffin Bay and Davis 

 Strait, and Figuiv 24. i)age 50, shows the circulation of the water in 

 the Arctic Archipelago as deduced by ^Sleeking. We conclude in 

 view of the foregoing data that not more than two-thirds of the pack 

 that (hifts out of Baffin Bay is actually formed witliin the latter. 



HUDSON BAY PACK 



Ice Ijegins to form in Hudson Bay during October and by the 

 end of the month most of the liarbors are frozen. The bay itself 

 remains comparatively free from ice during winter except for a 

 5 to 6 mile wide fringe. According to Low^e (1906, p. 293) fast ice 

 continues to make even up to the 1st of June, but when it begins 

 to break up it does so rapidly, sometimes early in July. During 

 a boisterous winter the ice is liable to raft, in which condition its 

 melting time is much lengthened. Aerial observations of ice condi- 

 tions in Hudson Strait have been reported by ]McLean (1929, pp. 

 12-13). The ai)pearance and disappearance of the ice is from west 

 to east. It arrives at the western entl of the strait in November and 

 two weeks later is found at the ocean entrance. February records 

 only 15 per cent of open water, the congestion remaining until the 

 month of JSIay when a noticeable decrease is observed. The middle 

 of July normally records 90 per cent of open water and a navigable 

 Hudson Strait. Hudson Strait is deemed safe for navigation dur- 

 ing normal years from the latter })art of July or first of August 

 until the latter j)art of October. Navigation of this region is an 

 important connnercial problem for Canada, the principal difficulty 

 lying in the blocked condition of the eastern end of Hudson Strait 

 (see McLean, 1929). Congestion there during spring and early sum- 

 mer is caused by ice from Hudson Bay and Fox Channel mixing with 

 that from Davis Strait. Not only does the Davis Strait pack cross 

 the moutii of Hudson Strait, but it is also carried by the current in 

 along the north side for a distance of 120 miles or more before it 

 recurves to pass out })arallel to the op])osite shore. Under such 

 conditions it is very difficult to distinguish between the arctic ice 

 and the heavy floes of local derivation. The thickness of Hudson 

 Strait and Fox Channel glax^ons nuiy vary from 7 to 19 feet. 



Hudson Bay and Fox Channel, with their wide shallow areas, 

 have often been described as ideal regions supplying the main 

 stream of i)ack ice which moves southward into the western Atlantic. 



