cide with the maximum nitrite concentrations. No 

 nitrite minimum is indicated within the cold cores. 

 This separation between tlie temperature minimum 

 and nitrite maximum within the colder water core 

 is of interest because it adds still another property 

 anomaly that may be used in the study of the cold 

 water forming the Labrador Current. At present, 

 the only inference that can be made to the above- 

 mentioned phenomena is that the cold core(s) of 

 the Labrador Current appear to be intrusive in 

 the area. That is to say that the cold cores are 

 filaments moving through water on the shelf 

 which could be considered resident water experi- 

 encing slower movement. This resident water is 

 more at equilibrium with the environmental and 

 biological conditions than the intrusive water. 

 Oceanic areas generally exhibit a nitrite maximum 

 at or just below the thermocline at about 75 metei-s 

 according to Sverdrup, et al. (1942). This is the 

 case, as can be seen in figure 5, for all the waters 

 except the cold cores of the Labrador Current. 



Li those sections which describe the Baffin Land 

 Current to the north (stations 9477-9508) the 

 nitrite maximum occurs above the temperature 

 minimum ; however, close examination of the data 

 in this area discloses that due to the large amounts 

 of cold homogenized water, the time temperature 

 minimum is not clearly defined. Furthermore, it 

 can be seen that the nitrite maximum actually lies 

 just below the thermocline as in all the other areas 

 shown in figure 5 with the exception of the cold 

 core of the Labrador Current. 



The nitrite concentrations generally varied 

 widely in vertical and horizontal distributions and, 

 except for a few instances, nitrite was never com- 

 pletely absent. 



Figure 6 is a plot of the 26.2 sigma-t surface 

 showing both tlie depth contours of the surface 

 and the nitrite concentrations. The striking slope 

 of the sigma-t surface clearly defines the limits of 

 the water with tlie particular density of 1.0262 

 gms/cm^ A sea surface intersection with the 

 sigma-t surface tends to indicate the movement of 

 the water masses into Hudson Strait on the north- 

 ern side and out the southern side. No water of 

 density of 1.0262 gms/cm^ was found in the section 

 running east of Resolution Island. This indicates 

 the lack of any flow connection, above the 25-meter 

 level, between the water lying to the north and 

 south of Resolution Island. 



The 26.2 sigma-t surface north of Resolution Is- 

 land intersects the sea surface to the east and south 



but is relatively flat in topographic description to 

 the west. There exist an almost uniform depth 

 level of about 25 meters which extends west to the 

 coast of Baffin Island. 



To the south of Resolution Island the 26.2 

 sigma-t surface slopes nnich more steeply in the 

 strait entrance and along the Labrador coast. 

 Intersection of the sigma-t surface with the bot- 

 tom can be seen near the Labrador coast. The 

 topography, in this area, goes to gi-eater depths 

 and is not flat like that to the north. The surface 

 extends below 100 meters in an area just off the 

 mouth of Hudson Strait and in general lies below 

 the 50-meter depth level. This great difference 

 in depth level, north and south of Resolution Is- 

 land, indicates that greater quantities of lighter 

 water seem to be present south of Resolution 

 Island. 



The great slope of the sigma-t surfaces imply 

 severe slopes of the isobaric surfaces and qualita- 

 tively indicate the circulation in the area. The 

 contours of the nitrite concentrations tend to sup- 

 port these circulation patterns. 



It is quite apparent from figure 6 that the water 

 flow is into Hudson Strait north of Resolution 

 Island and out of the strait south of Resolution 

 Island with no north-south flow connection shown 

 for water of this density. The broad contours 

 of nitrites to the north are nondescriptive because 

 of their uniformity. To the south, however, 

 there exists a tongue of higher nitrites emanating 

 from inside the point of Cape Chidley and flowing 

 out in a broad pattern. Somewhat isolated to the 

 east is a second nitrite concentration giving indi- 

 cation of a pulselike structure in the flow pattern 

 coming from the strait. This pulselike structure 

 can also be observed in the depth of the sigma-t 

 surface coincident with this higlier nitrite concen- 

 tration pulse. The topography here dips to a 

 depth in excess of 100 meters, thus indicating a 

 slug or pulse of lighter water moving through the 

 area. 



Figure 7 shows the 27.0 sigma-t surface. Again, 

 nitrite concentrations as well as the topography 

 are contoured on the sigma-t surface. This sur- 

 face intersects the sea surface in only a limited area 

 just to the northeast of Resolution Island. This 

 is an area of flow direction transition where lighter 

 water, on the left side of the flow pattern moving 

 into Hudson Strait, is in close proximity with the 

 heavier water flowing south, just east of Resolu- 

 tion Island. Here again the general flow patterns 



