144 MAPvIOX EXPEDITIOiSr TO DAVIS STRAIT AND BAFFIN BAY 



bergs are often reported as abundant in Melville Bay and in the 

 northern part of Baffin Bay. where they congregate around the 

 Carey Islands. 



The cyclonic movement which has been traced along the eastern 

 and northern side of Baffin Bay is augmented by inflowing currents 

 from Jones Sound and Lancaster Sound. The dynamic topographic 

 map (fig. 91, p. 139) plainly indicates that there is an indraft along 

 the northern side of each of the above straits, which combines w^ith a 

 discharge out along the southern shores. When the Godthaah took its 

 observations each of the straits, Jones and Lancaster, were dominated 

 by a west to east current, from the Arctic into Baffin Bay, moving 

 at the rate of 7 to 10 miles per day. A very narrow counterflow not 

 over 2 or 3 miles in width hugged the north shore of each opening. 



Bergs in the current would at first enter for a short distance on 

 the north side of Jones Sound and then be carried out southeastward 

 into Baffin Bay, thence through the same general movement in the 

 eastern entrance of Lancaster Sound. In neither one of these straits, 

 moreover, would the bergs succeed in setting very far to the west- 

 ward because they would soon meet the strong discharge which 

 normally flows out into Baffin Bay. 



The closely packed position of the isobaths and a current of 7 to 10 

 miles a day (fig. 92, p. 140) out along the southern side of Lancaster 

 Sound indicate this as the swiftest flow recorded by the Godthaah and 

 also mark this region as the source of the icy current to the Xorth At- 

 lantic. If we should be asked to point to the headwaters of the famous 

 Labrador current which flows to lower latitudes, we would unhesi- 

 tatingly select this locality as the fountain head. After the bergs 

 have slowdy been carried in the circuit of Baffin Bay and they have 

 entered the discharge from Lancaster Sound they take on hence- 

 forth a swifter, more definite transportation heading directly tow^ard 

 Davis Strait and the Atlantic. 



The gradient currents in the waters along the Baffin Land coast 

 between Lancaster Sound and Cape Broughton, Baffin Land, in lati- 

 tude 67° 40', have never been surveyed so thoroughly as the other parts 

 of Baffin Bay,'" but from various sources of information, such as the 

 drift of ships beset by the pack, example {Resolute, see p. 48), and 

 the behavior of other waters under similar conditions, a well-marked 

 southerly set paralleling the coast is definitely established. The 

 most northerly observations on the Baffin Land side, near Cape 

 Broughton in "latitude 67° 40', were made bv the Godtlmab the sum- 

 mer of 1928. The stations 160 to 165 (see Annually, 1929, p. 42) indi- 

 cate a continuation of the current previously mentioned and recorded 

 farther north off Bylot Island. 



This floAv, whicii we shall call the Baffin Land current, embraced 

 a band of water 15 miles in width, the axis of which lay about 12 

 miles out from the coast. Icebergs keeping in this belt would have 

 been transported southw^ard at the rate of 12 miles per day, but 

 farther offshore such bergs would not be carried faster than 4 miles 

 a day, yet such southward progress would be guaranteed, neverthe- 



™ This unexplored oceanographic region, so marked on fig. 91, is made inaccessible to 

 navigation by pack ice which persists there except in only an occasional summer when for 

 a brief week or more these waters may be entered. The Godthaah found this stretch oft 

 the Baffin Land shelf unpenetrable the summer of 1928. 



