OCEANOGRAPHER'S REPORTS. 



Lieut. Edward H. Smith, U. S. Coast Guard. 



MARCH. 



Bergs were reported around the Tail of the Grand Bank the first 

 part of March, and the ice patrol was inaugurated on the 13th in- 

 stant. 



Upon sorting, assembling, and plotting the positions of icebergs 

 that had been reported since the one reported February 27, it was 

 noted that the majority of bergs were drifting southeastward from 

 the region between Flemish Cap and the Grand Banks. The}* con- 

 tinued to be set in a general southeasterly direction down on to the 

 northern edge of the Gulf Stream, where they assumed an east-north- 

 easterly drift, due to the set of the Gulf Stream. The region most 

 infested by bergs was between parallels 44 and 46 and meridians 

 44 and 46. (See charts ''F" and "G".) This uncommon easterly 

 set of the bergs could not be attributed to the prevailing north- 

 westerly gales, since as great a number of gales of similar direction 

 and intensity blew last year and caused no such marked drift to 

 the ice. Observations obtained at station 247 (see station table, 

 p. 92), lat. 44° 17', long. 44° 37', indicated the presence of presum- 

 ably Arctic water and established a southeasterly current which 

 accounted for the drift of these bergs. This current was accelerated, 

 no doubt, by the northwesterly gales, but the fact that it existed 

 in the subsurface layers, and that the sui-face was covered by warm 

 tropical water, indicates that the wind was not the controlling factor 

 in this movement of the water masses and of the bergs. The above 

 observations agree with previous ones relative to the small effect of 

 wind upon icebergs, and emphasize the fact that the drift of bergs 

 is controlled by relatively deep-seated major circulatory movements 

 in the sea. 



A few of the bergs were found to ])e drifting down along the east 

 side of the (Jrund Banks and around the Tail (what has come to be 

 regarded as the normal track). Three bergs, which had followed 

 this course, were sighted at intervals on March 19 in an east and 

 west line, due west of the Tail for 40 miles. Consideration of subse- 

 quent developments leads to the behef that these bergs were set 

 in on the southwest slope of the Grand Bank and there disinte- 

 grated. Surface evidence, i. e., low temperatures, of the southern- 



(70) 



