32 MARION AND GENERAL GREENE EXPEDITIONS 



that the main current hugged the continental slope and that an outer 

 band was separated by a clockwise rotating eddy. The alternations 

 in the directions of the flow as evidence throughout the section in- 

 dicate the probable effect of the bottom configuration on the gradient 

 current as it rounds Cape Farewell and is subsequently joined by 

 other current from the Labrador Sea. The calculated volume of 

 the trunk of the West Greenland Current which hugged the con- 

 tinental edge at Cape Farewell (fig. 8) was 3.2 million cubic meters 

 per second; the vortex contained approximately 1 million cubic 

 meters per second; and the converging set at the outer end of the 

 section totaled nearly 2 million cubic meters per second, 



Ivigtut. — One hundred and fifty miles farther along the current, 

 off Ivigtut, the West Greenland Current (fig. 9) was found, as at 

 Cape Farewell, hugging the continental edge. It had, however, in- 

 creased greatly both in cross-sectional area and velocity ; the 5-centi- 

 meter-per-second velocity curve here extended to a depth of nearly 

 1,200 meters. Offshore the section intersected a south-flowing band 

 of 2.6 million cubic meters per second, evidently a branch of the slope 

 current which had recurved southward and then westward into the 

 Labrador Sea (cf. fi^. 9 with fig. 8). 



The calculated volume of the slope band of the West Greenland 

 Current off Ivigtut, August 27-28, 1928, was 7.4 million cubic meters 

 per second, or approximately double the slope band observed a week 

 later off Cape Farewell. Reference to the surface current map 

 (fig. 8) indicates that some of the discrepancy ma}^ be attributed to 

 coastal current which flowed through the 10-mile gap between station 

 1080 and Cape Farewell. The fact that there is swift current here 

 at times is confirmed by Soule who, in 1935, observed icebergs moving 

 westward close under logger Island, Cape Farewell, at an estimated 

 rate of 4 knots per hour. Finally it was thought that the excess of 

 transport off Ivigtut may have been partially due to current which 

 entered from offshore between the two sections. A computation of 

 the current there between stations 1070 and 1086, however, gave 2.7 

 million cubic meters per second but in a westerly direction away 

 from the Greenland slope. Of course this does not preclude the pos- 

 sibility of a current from below 1,500 meters intersecting the Ivigtut 

 profile above 1,500 meters, but this is contrary to our conception 

 of the general circulation. It seems more likely, in view of the 

 above, that the discrepancy noted in the computed volumes of the 

 current at Ivigtut and Cape Farewell resulted from errors incident to 

 the method and its application there. 



Fiskcrn€iessett. — This section (fig. 9, profile C) shows the slope 

 band of the West Greenland Current as having a volume of 6.6 

 million cubic meters per second, or a reduction of about 15 percent 

 from that at Ivigtut. The decrease in the volume of the current 

 can safely be attributed to offshore branching which is clearly re- 

 corded on the surface current map between Ivigiut and Fiskernaes- 

 sett. The offshore part of the Fiskernaessett section records alter- 

 nate southeast and northwest flow, which the dynamic topographic 

 map (fig. 122, p. 167) indicates was one single band of current which 

 moved out into the Labrador Sea. The volume of this band 

 aniounted to 1.8 million cubic meters per second, leaving 5.8 million 

 cubic meters per second to continue northward. 



