Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 383 



"When the Virgin Rocks, lying about 80 miles W. by S. from 

 Cape Race, were surveyed in July, 1829, the current set over 

 them to the W. S. W. at the rate of one mile an hour. 



" It is probable that this westerly current impinges on the 

 easterly one, and continues its course, with diminishing velocity, 

 towards Breton Island, where it blends with that branch of the 

 St. Lawrence stream which sets to the S. W. between Sable Isl- 

 and and Nova Scotia. 



" The sea between the Grand Bank of Newfoundland and the 

 Banks of Nova Scotia is distinguished by its drifts of cold water, 

 varying with the wind and seasons."* 



In further proof of the westwardly pressure of the polar current 

 upon the American coast, we may state, on the authority of 

 Captain Bayfield, the able officer who surveyed the Gulf and 

 River of St. Lawrence, that " in spring the entrance and east- 

 ern parts of the Gulf are frequently covered with ice, and ves- 

 sels are sometimes beset for many days ;" and that " the reality 

 of a current inwards through the Strait of Belle Isle, is con- 

 firmed by the presence of icebergs, which it transports into the 

 Gulf in summer, against the prevailing S. W. winds, frequently 

 carrying them as far as Mecatina, and sometimes even to the 

 neighborhood of the east point of Anticosti." This last position 

 is nearly 300 miles from the entrance of the strait, and almost 

 half way to Quebec. 



Bat even stronger proof of this inward pressure of the cold 

 current into the gulf and estuary of St. Lawrence is found in the 

 icy temperature of its deeper waters during the summer. Thus, 

 in the middle of the estuary, off Matan, and more than 200 miles 

 above the east point of Anticosti, on the 8th of July, Dr. Kelly 

 found the temperature of the surface water 60°, — at 30 fathoms 

 35°, — at 50 fathoms 34° : the whole depth at that point being 

 132 fathoms. A subsequent trial in this portion of the river 

 showed the surface water at 57'^ ^ — at half a fathom depth 44°, — 

 5 fathoms 40°,— 10 fathoms 38°,— 100 fathoms 35°. At Ta- 

 dousac, about half way to Q,uebec from the place of the last ob- 

 servation. Dr. Kelly found the temperature, in September, as low 

 as 36°, after an easterly gale, which mingles the shallow stream 

 of the surface with the deeper waters. Numerous other obser- 



* Purdy, in Rennell. 



