290 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 



ern waters of the strait can only be accounted for by this 

 current, for they must all come from Davis strait, there being 

 no glaciers to produce them on the lands fronting on the strait 

 or bay. These icebergs have been seen as far west as the western 

 end of Salisbury island, almost to the entrance of Hudson bay. 



The east-flowing current of the south side of the strait was 

 proved by the drift of the Neptune when beset in the ice off 

 Cape Wolstenholme, and later, off Cape Weggs. In the former 

 instance the drift of the ship was thirty miles in twenty-four 

 hours, while in the latter it was twenty miles in twenty hours. 

 Driftwood borne north on the current of the east side of Hud- 

 son bay is not rare on the southern shores of the western part of 

 the strait, while large quantities of it are found on the eastern 

 shores of Ungava bay, having been drifted east and north from 

 the mouths of the rivers emptying into the head of that bay. 



The current flowing westward along the north side of the 

 strait sweeps northward up the east side of Fox channel, rounds 

 the head of that large northern bay, and then flows southward 

 along the east side of Southampton, bringing with it the heavy 

 ice from the northern parts of Fox channel, so that heavy drift 

 ice is almost always found to the north of the eastern entrance 

 to Evans strait, and often comes sufficiently south to partly 

 block the channel between Mansfield and Coats islands. 



The current from the north along the western shores of Hud- 

 son bay is not important as regards navigation, as it comes from 

 the narrow waters of Roes Welcome and does not transport a 

 large quantity of field ice. 



Similar currents follow the shores, of Baffin bay and Davis 

 strait; on the east, or Greenland side, the flow is northward, 

 while along the west side or that of the Arctic islands the cur- 

 rent is southward, and carries on its surface great quantities of 

 heavy field ice formed in these northern waters, together with 

 extensive masses of Arctic ice which have passed south or east 



