temperature minimum could be hugging either 

 shore but the lack of data close to shore precludes 

 drawing any conclusion. Water colder than —1.0° 

 C is found at greater depths than it was further 

 north which very likely is the direct result of the 

 increase in the depth to bottom and the narrow- 

 ness of the strait between Cape Herschel and Cape 

 Hatherton. 



Figures 3a, 3b, and 3c show respectively the 

 temperature distribution between Gale Point and 

 Cape Alexander, Orne Island and Murchinson 

 Sound, and Cape Combermere and Cape Parry. 

 Surface temperatures show a warming trend while 

 the core of the — 1.0° C temperature minimum con- 

 tinues to remain at a depth of 100 meters. The 

 extreme temperature minimum found much fur- 

 ther north is again apparent in figure 3b with its 

 core located at 75 meters depth at station 8776. 

 Figure 3c shows the edge of a deep canyon at sta- 

 tion 8778 with water warmer than 0° C at the bot- 

 tom. The pocket of warmer than 0° C water 

 can be better seen at station 8778 in figure 4, the 

 upper Baffin Bay section from Cape Norton Shaw 

 to Cape Atholl. There is a temperature maxi- 

 mum of 1.02° C in the core of this warmer water 

 at approximately 340 meters depth. There are 

 in evidence two areas of colder water with their 

 cores located at approximately 75 meters depth 

 between stations 8783 and 8784 and at station 8787. 

 There is insufficient data to clearly demonstrate the 

 formation of these cores of cold water but it has 

 been shown that the coldest water lies at or above 

 100 meters depth and that the temperatures grad- 

 ually decrease further south. Figure 5 is a longi- 

 tudinal representation of vertical temperature 

 distribution including the 1,000-, 1,500-, and 2,000- 

 meter observations in Baffin Bay. In constructing 

 this section an attempt was made to follow the 

 center of the channel and the greater depths. 



Figures 6a, 6b, and 6c show the transverse sur- 

 face to bottom distribution of salinity in the Ken- 

 nedy Channel, Kane Basin, and Smith Sound sec- 

 tions respectively. The low salinity water at the 

 surface can be directly attributed to fresh water 

 runoff and melting of ice from the Humboldt 

 Glacier and from the fjords along the Ellesmere 

 coast. This can be seen in figure 6a at station 8763 

 where the low salinity resulted from ice off Cape 



Collinson, in figure 6b at station 8758 from Hum- 

 boldt Glacier ice and at station 8750 from ice at 

 Cape Louis Napoleon. The bottom water also 

 becomes less saline further south through the fur- 

 ther addition of fresh water and the mechanism of 

 mixing. Figures 7a, 7b, and 7c depict the trans- 

 verse surface to bottom distribution of salinity 

 between the Smith Sound and upper Baffin Bay 

 sections and figure 8 shows the conditions found at 

 the upper Baffin Bay section. With the exception 

 of the slightly more saline conditions found in the 

 two northernmost sections, isohalines were fairly 

 uniform for the entire area. This is illustrated 

 by figure 9, the section showing the longitudinal 

 distribution of salinity from Kennedy Channel to 

 upper Baffin Bay. 



Figures 10, 11, 12, and 13 show the density (sig- 

 ma-t) distribution for all oceanographic sections. 

 The deep water of upper Baffin Bay was found to 

 be quite stable. The distribution of specific vol- 

 ume anomaly (10 5 8) for all sections is shown in 

 figures 14, 15, 16, and 17. 



Figures 18, 19, 20, and 21 show the vertical dis- 

 tribution of dissolved oxygen in the areas surveyed. 

 Near surface oxygen values of the northernmost 

 sections were exceptionally high with values as 

 high as 11.20 ml/1 at station 8757 and show a de- 

 crease with depth. Lower values are associated 

 with the more southerly sections. The distribu- 

 tion of oxygen percent saturation, figures 22, 23, 24, 

 and 25, followed a similar pattern. It is inter- 

 esting to note that the areas of highest oxygen 

 concentration were located where the greatest 

 amount of ice melting was taking place and where 

 the surface temperatures were moderately high. 

 As an example, the highest oxygen content meas- 

 ured, 11.20 ml/1 at station 8757, was located down- 

 stream from the Humboldt Glacier and was at the 

 edge of a field of pack ice off Cape Russell with 

 a relatively high surface water temperature of 

 5.05° C. It would appear that air entrapped in 

 the ice had gone into solution with the sea water as 

 the ice melted. Oxygen content gradually de- 

 creased further south although it remained high. 

 The bottom water of Baffin Bay can be readily 

 recognized by the lower oxygen content and per- 

 cent saturation as noted in the data from stations 

 8791, 8792, and 8793. 



