166 A TEXTBOOK OF OCEANOGRAPHY 



The velocity of the Labrador Current in Baffin Bay and 

 Davis Strait can be estimated from the drift of nineteen men 

 of Hall's Polar expedition (the Polaris of New London, 

 U.S.A.), who on pack-ice drifted from October 15, 1872, to 

 April 30, 1873), between 74 and 69 N. Lat. in the middle of 

 Baffin Bay, an average of 6J sea-miles daily to the south. 

 The crew of the steamer Tigress drifted in 53 N. Lat. off 

 the coast of Labrador, ir8 sea-miles daily. 



The relationship of the Labrador Current to the so-called 

 " Gulf Stream " and to the line of separation known as the 

 "cold wall " is by no means fully understood, although there 

 have recently been considerable additions to our knowledge 

 of the area on and surrounding the Newfoundland Banks. 



The Labrador Current coming from the north-west strikes 

 the coast of Newfoundland, flows over the easterly part of the 

 Grand Bank, and ends up in the Gulf Stream east of 50 W. 

 Long., so that its waters do not wash the east coast of the 

 United States. 



On the Newfoundland Bank there is no constant stream 

 in any direction, so that no Arctic water flows to the south- 

 west over the bank past St. John's and Cape Race. The 

 coastal currents of the United States originate exclusively 

 from the Gulf of St. Lawrence that is, the " Cabot Current " 

 and these run down to the latitude of New York. South of 

 this and south of Cape Hatteras there is a current which has 

 a temperature only slightly below that of the Florida Current, 

 possibly only 2 to 3 C. less, and consequently is entirely 

 different from the " cold w 7 all " water met with farther north, 

 which shows a drop in temperature of from 15 to 20 C. 

 When one current ends in another there must be a mixture 

 of the component \vaters. The Labrador Current is not simply 

 swallowed by the Florida Current. 



The older charts show the Labrador Current as disappear- 

 ing under the Gulf Stream drift. Deep-sea observations from 

 this region are remarkably scanty, but the Challenger records 

 between 35 and 36 N. Lat. and 55 and 45 W. Long, show 



