54 THE OCEAN 



— into the sea the outer ends break off and 

 float away as icebergs. 



Nearly all the bergs which drift into the 

 steamship lanes of the North Atlantic come 

 from western Greenland, while a few drift 

 south from the Spitzbergen Sea and Hudson 

 Bay, for bergs may travel enormous distances 

 and may endure for two years or more if 

 they do not reach water warm enough to melt 

 them rapidly. Only a small portion of the 

 icebergs ever drift south to the vicinity of the 

 Grand Banks and the ocean steamship routes, 

 for on their journey down from the shores of 

 Greenland they meet with many stoppages 

 and mishaps. Of the thousands of bergs 

 which start on their southward trip many 

 ground in the Arctic basin and break up. 

 Others reach the shores of Labrador and 

 ground among the numerous islands, bays, 

 headlands, shoals and reefs of that coast. Still 

 others break up and disappear at sea and only 

 a few pass safely to the regions off the Grand 

 Banks of Newfoundland. 



The greatest factor in the drift of the bergs 

 is the Labrador Current, which passes south 



