252 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
p. 35); and Engelhardt (1913, p. 9, chart B), thinks it certain that the — 
Labrador Current bathes our coast at least as far as New England. — 
But in 1897 a new light was thrown on the subject by Schott, whose - 
analysis of the currents on the Grand Banks led him to conclude 
that the chief source of our cold coast water was not the Labrador 
Current, but water flowing out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence via Cabot 
Straits. And his work was founded on so large a body of temperatures, 
and current records taken by vessels at anchor on the Banks, that it 
may well serve as the starting point of our modern knowledge of the 
relationship of the Labrador Current to the Gulf Stream in that region. 
The most important feature of Schott’s work, from the present stand- 
point, is his failure to find any evidence that the Labrador Current, 
as such, flows southwest across the Grand Banks, although it follows 
their eastern edge southward to the southern extremity. It is true, 
he says, that a small amount of polar water turns westward, and flows 
along the southern coast of Newfoundland; but it enters the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence. And though movements of polar water toward the 
southwest across the banks have been observed, he maintains that they 
are too small in amount, and too irregular in occurrence, to be any- 
thing more than local surface currents caused by the frequent strong 
northeast winds. 
This is perhaps an extreme view, for as Kriimmel (1911) points out 
part of the polar water which flows around the south coast of New- 
foundland, joins the outflow from the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And 
Kriimmel furthermore maintains that there must be a general tend- 
ency for the polar water to flow southwestward across the Grand | 
Banks, and thus to reach the coast of Nova Scotia directly, instancing — 
the fact that icebergs, coming south with the Labrador Current, have | 
occasionally been known to drift southwest from the Grand Banks. 
But Capt. C. E. Johnston (1913), whose experience as commander of — 
the U. S. Revenue Cutter on ice patrol duty on the Banks in 1913 and 
1914 has given him unusual opportunities to study the currents in 
that region, states that the “currents on the Grand Bank....are | 
almost wholly tidal. In a general way they flood to the northward 
and ebb to the southward. Winds drive them to the eastward or | 
westward, sometimes overcoming the strength of the tidal current”; | 
and we can hardly suppose that there is any constant movement of - 
polar water southwestward around the southern edge of the Grand — 
Banks, for although bergs have occasionally been known to drift for 
long distances in that direction (Kriimmel, 1911), the general move- — 
ment of the ice, after reaching the southern point of the Bank, is just — 
