432 OBSEEVATIONS ON THE CUKEENTS 



Southward of Cape Farewell,* seldom or never fall in with ice before they 

 have rounded Cape Farewell and got into Davis Strait, which is a certain 

 proof that there does not exist even a branch of the Arctic Current run 

 ning directly from East Greenland towards the Banks of Newfoundland." \ 



The limits of this Spitzbergen Current, as it may be termed, are there- 

 fore indicated by the distance to which the ice it transports is found to 

 extend, and from the examples cited may be taken, as above, to a 

 distance of 120 miles South of Cape Farewell, and to 150 miles off the 

 Danish settlements of S.W. Greenland. 



(429.) In the space of Ocean between the Southern limits of this current 

 and the known South-Easterly drift down the Labrador Coast, an 

 anomalous condition seems to exist ; we have no notice of the set of the 

 streams, if any, within it, but its characteristic seems to be the drift-wooa 

 within its area. These floating relics have evidently a Southern origin, and 

 point also to the truth of the statement that a warm current sets toward 

 and past Iceland. 



" Another proof that the current from East Greenland does not run in 

 a straight line towards the Banks of Newfoundland, is also derived from 

 the observations of the temperature of the surface made on many voyages 

 to and from Greenland. 



" Supposing that the Arctic Current from East Greenland pursued its 

 course in a straight line towards the Banks of Newfoundland, it would be 

 crossed, on the voyage from Copenhagen to the Danish colonies in Green- 

 land, between 38° and 45° W., and so high a temperature in the surface of 

 the Ocean as from 4° to 6° E. (41° to 45-5° Fahrenheit), as is found only 

 on this route, would, according to my opinion, be impossible only 1° or 2° to 

 the Southward of the parallel of Cape Farewell ; as it is a well-known fact, 

 that the principal Ocean currents maintain their temperatures through 

 very considerable distances of their courses. 



" This comparatively high temperature of the surface of the Ocean, so 

 near to the limits of that current which carries enormous masses of ice 

 from the Ocean near Spitzbergen round Cape Farewell, warrants my 

 opinion that the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, move in a North- 

 westerly or Northerly direction, towards the Eastern and Southern coasts 

 of Greenland, and that this indraught towards the land is undoubtedly 

 the cause of the ice being so closely pressed on to these coasts as it is so 

 frequently on the South coast, and almost constantly on the East coast, 

 rendering the Eastern coast entirely inaccessible from seaward. 



• An observation which it is interesting to mention here, and which gives a proof of 

 the very little difference between the temperature of the surface and that at some depth, 

 is mentioned in the voyage of Captain Graah, page 21. He says, " The 5th of May, 1828, 

 in lat. 57° 35' N., and 36° 36' W., the temperature of the surface was found eS" B. 

 (46-2° Fahrenheit), and at a depth of 660 feet 5-5° R. (44-5° P.)." This proves that there 

 is no cold submarine current in the place alluded to, to the S.E. of Cape Farewell. A 

 still more conclusive experiment was recorded by Sir Edward Parry, in the account of 

 his first voyage, June 23, 1819; in lat. 67° 51' N., long. 41° 5', with a very slight Southerly 

 current, the suface temperature was 40J° Fahrenheit ; and at 235 fathoms 39°, a dif- 

 ference of only 1J°. 



■f " Journal of the RoyaJ Geographicafl Society," vol. xxvi., pp. 40, 41. 



