125 



PROFILE NO. 9— STATIONS 296-305. 



The section runs from station "C" (see chart "A") northerly to 

 within 15 miles of Cape Race, Newfoundland. It gives a north and 

 south vertical section of the water column on the Grand Bank and 

 also cross-cuts the gulley which separates Newfoundland from the 

 shoaler portion of the continental shelf lying to the southward. The 

 stations were taken during the period May 4-9, the first time this 

 region of the Grand Bank has heen investigated hy the ice patrol 

 since July 16, 1914. The investigation was made for information 

 relative to the extent of the influence of the Labrador Current over 

 the Grand Banks. The value of the section lies in the frequency of 

 stations, there being 9. 



Salinity. — A layer of water fresher than 32.94''/„o, 20 meters (11 

 fathoms) in thickness, extended on the surface from Cape Race to 

 the Tail of the Grand Bank. Water Salter than SSVoo flooded the 

 northern part of the Bank in the deeper water and overflowed over 

 the bottom of the shoaler bank to the southward, a distance of 150 

 miles from Cape Race. Southward, on the Atlantic side, was found 

 water of similar salinity which had encroached inshore on the Tail 

 for a distance of 70 miles. The remaining water, the freshest of the 

 section, 31.62<'/oo, lay as a surface pool at station 299, in the central 

 part of the Bank. The saltest water lay in the deepest part of the 

 gulley, the maximum reading of 33.24''/^o being obtained at station 

 304 as close to the bottom as it was prudent to lower the thermometers. 



Tem/perature . — Water colder than 0° bathed the bottom of the 

 Bank from Cape Race to the Tail. This icy bottom cover was, on 

 the average, 30 meters (16 fathoms) thick, the contour of its upper 

 boundary being roughly horizontal except near the Newfoundland 

 coast. The coldest water of the entire section w^as found just south 

 of Cape Race on the south side of the gulley, where the thermometer 

 registered — 1.9°, the lowest temperature ever recorded by the patrol. 

 Tliis water with a temperature of —1.9° and a salinity 33.24%o is 

 pure Arctic, free from adulterations, and similar to that found by 

 the steamship Scotia, June 28, 1913, much farther north off the coast 

 of Labrador in the heart of the Labrador Current ( — 1.85°, salinity 

 33.24*'/oo). The warmest water was a surface pool >2°, which lay on 

 the south central part of the Bank exactly coiTesponding in position 

 with the freshest water. 



Summing up: A careful examination of the profile indicates that 

 cold Arctic water flooded the northern part of the Grand Bank in 

 the form of a branch of the Labrador Current (see p. 146), which set 

 around Cape Race, completely filling the gulley and overflowing 

 southward over the bottom of the Bank to a distance of 150 miles 

 88124—24 9 



