CURRENTS IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE— FOX. 303 
specific gravity. It also increases its altitude and bulk, and 
being lighter than the water below floats on its surface and 
forms a current, which to find its equilibrium sets down in a 
southerly direction towards Capes Ray and North into the 
Atlantic ocean. , 
The ice generally disappears about the middle of May and 
forms again in such quantity by the end of December as to 
obstruct navigation. 
There are three channels or entrances into the Gulf from the 
Ocean: one is to the north of Newfoundland through the Straits 
of Belle Isle, another to the south of Newfoundland, and the third 
is through the Strait of Canso. 
The channel generally used by ships bound to the Ports of Que-° 
bee and Montreal, is that to the south of Newfoundland, between 
Capes Ray and North, and to which these observations, are chiefly 
intended to apply. 
This channel is about fifty miles wide. Twelve miles east from 
Cape North lies the Island of St. Paul, and forty-five miles in a 
northwesterly direction are the Magdalen Islands, the distance 
from thence to the Island of Anticosti is about eighty miles. 
These Islands lie directly in the track of vessels, bound to 
Ports in the Gulf. 
From Anticosti to the northern end of the Straits of Belle Isle 
the distance is about three hundred and forty miles. This Strait is 
twelve miles wide at its northern entrance, and about one hundred 
miles at its southern, between Cape George, Newfoundland, and 
Cape Whittle, Labrador, through which is the route taken by the. 
Ocean Steamships from Europe to Quebec during the summer 
months. 
A branch of the Polar current sets in a southwesterly direction 
through the Straits of Belle Isle, and is stronger on the north, or 
Labrador coast, than on the south or Newfoundland, the water 
being deeper there, its velocity is influenced by the winds, and 
greater in spring and autumn than in summer, when southwest 
winds prevail withincreased temperature. This occasionally creates 
a surface current setting to the north-east; the colder current, 
below setting through south-west, or in the opposite direction, 
