THE AECTIC OK LABEADOE CUEEENT. 431. 



Current of East Greenland is more difficult to define on account of the ice. 

 Captain Mourier, who examined the latter current in 1879, in the Danish 

 vessel Ingolf, always found a comparatively high temperature at the 

 bottom, and the Nordenskiold expedition of 1883 found the same, demon- 

 strating that this cold current, between lat. 66° N. and Cape Farewell, 

 jflows on a bed of warm water proceeding poleward, the surface water 

 being of less density than that of the warm. Its depth was found to 

 extend to about half the depth of the sea in the places examined.* 



(427.) The limit of the N.E. Drift about Iceland has been mentioned 

 previously (420). To the West of this, then, we may place the great drift 

 which comes down from beyond Spitzbergen, and transports the immense 

 quantities of ice upon the Eastern shores of Greenland, which has 

 generally rendered this, one of the most inclement regions of the world, 

 unapproachable by ships. Several instances of this drift could be recited, 

 but as it is not interesting to navigation, they need not be dilated on, 

 though the Ice this current brings into the low latitudes is an important 

 consideration in the navigation of the North Atlantic Ocean. This branch 

 of the Arctic Drift, however, does not probably furnish many of those 

 gigantic Icebergs, which, drifting down Davis Straits, float over and East- 

 ward of the Newfoundland Banks, and far into the Northern margin of 

 the Gulf Stream. 



The estimated rate of this drift from Spitzbergen, calculated from the 

 rate of vessels in the pack-ice, is from 8 to 14 miles per day.f 



(428.) It was formerly considered that this S.W. stream, after passing 

 Cape Farewell, the South point of Greenland, made direct for the coast of 

 Labrador, and thence over the Newfoundland Banks. But Commodore 

 Irminger, of the Danish Eoyal Navy, has demonstrated that it does not do 

 so, but that it passes around Cape Farewell to the Westward, and thence 

 passes Northward in a narrow stream along the shores of West Greenland, 

 and is known as the West Greenland Current. It is considered that a 

 branch of the Gulf Stream flows towards Davis Sound. This would 

 strike the East Greenland Polar Current off Cape Farewell, carrying the 

 ice brought by the latter to the Westward and Northward, its tempera- 

 ture and density thus becoming reduced as it proceeds Northward. 



" If the current existed, which some writers state to run in a direct line 

 from East Greenland to the Banks of Newfoundland, then the ice would 

 likewise be carried with that current from East Greenland ; if it were a 

 submarine current, the deeply immersed icebergs would be transported by 

 it ; if it were only a surface current, the immense extent of field-ice would 

 indicate its course, and vessels would consequently cross these ice-drifts 

 at whatever distance they passed to the Southward of Cape Farewell. But 

 this is not the case ; experience has taught that vessels coming from the 

 Eastward, steering their course about 2° (120 nautic miles) to the 



• A mora detailed account of the observations of the Nordenskiold Expedition of 



1883, will be found in the "Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society," October, 



1884, pages 669—578. 



t See A. Q. Pindlay, " On the course of Sir John Franklin's Expedition," in th« 

 Journal of the Boyal Geographical Society, vol. xxvi., 1856, page 33. 



