66 



currences forming and dissipating in this particular region south 

 of the Grand Banks where water masses are subject to intense trans- 

 formations. 



It is interesting to note the position of a surface pool of relatively 

 cold water which was found in the vicinity of 45° 15' north, 45° 30' 

 west, it evidently having become disconnected from the main mass 

 of cold water to the northwest and moved offshore between the 

 northeastern part of the Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap. This 

 illustrates a tendency of the water masses in this vicinity to move 

 offshore to the eastward in the early season when the circulation of 

 the Gulf Stream is most intense and when its invasions inshore be- 

 tween the forty-fourth and forty-fifth parallels provides a favorable 

 opportunity for such a scheme of circulation. The same phenome- 

 non was observed in 1923 except that it was more striking then, due 

 to the fact that these southeasterly moving water masses bore a 

 freight of icebergs.^ 



The first ice to be reported for 1924 in the North Atlantic south 

 of Newfoundland was a large berg sighted January 14. between 

 Flemish Cap and the Grand Bank.* Subsequent reports identified it 

 as drifting southeastward at the rate of 0.5 laiot per hour to 45° 55' 

 north. 44° 20' west, where it was last seen January 26 on the north- 

 ern edge of the Avarm Atlantic water melting rapidily. (See chart 

 D, Avhich shows all ice, both bergs and field, seen in the Atlantic 

 January 1 to March 1, 1924.) Two other bergs were sighted on the 

 northeastern part of the Grank Bank but were not reported there- 

 after. There were a total of three bergs sighted in the Atlantic prior 



^ Smith, Edward H. : International Ice Observation and Ice Patrol Service, 1923, 

 r. S. C. a. Bull. No. 11, pp. 139-140. 



♦ It is worth recording that thn only glacial ice (icebergs) sighted in the southern 

 region of the Grand Banks after the disco6tinuance of the ice patrol, July 12, 1923, 

 and the first icebergs for 1924, reporte<l .Ian. 14, were three bergs, two of which drifted 

 southward along the east side of the Bank to the region of the Tail, and are shown, as it 

 is believed they existed, on sketch No. 1. Berg- A was reported on Sept. 18 in the 

 viciiniiy of 45° 07' north, 48° 55' west, evidently set in on the slope where it was 

 held fast as it was not reiiorted soutlnvard thereafter. Berg B. the first berg 

 to be sighted after the withdrawal of the patrol, was sighted Aug. 29 in the 

 vicinity of 44° 50' north, 46° 29' west. It wa.s seen again Sept. 6, having drifted 

 soutliward at the rate of 0.5 knot per hour during the interim. It grounded on 

 the Tail of the Bank, being reported there by several steamers from Sept. 18 to 

 2.". where it gradually broke up. It, or parts of it, floated off and was reported 

 south of the Tail on the 27th but not thereafter, and we may infer tb;it this ice whicli 

 liad driftwl offshore into the Atlantic basin had dwindled by this time to insignificant 

 size as nothing more was heard of it. A report of ice on Sept. 19 on the bank and 

 alKiut 40 miles northwest of the Tail probably refers to another piece of berg B in 

 process of disintegration. Its drift to tlie northwest from the Tail corresponds to 

 the currents and records of drift of ice in this locality. Ice sighted to the northwest, 

 on tlie siiuthw(>st sloiie of the Bank, on Oct. 10, may have been tlie final remains 

 of berg B whicli bad l)o<>n grounded on tli(» Tail for so long. A berg was reported 

 on Sept. 19 in the vicinity of 43° 48' norUi, 49° 10' west, which must be designated 

 as a new lurg. provided the report is authentic, has been marked " Berg C " on sketch 

 No. 1. It Is intimated there were three bergs in this region during the fall of 1923 ; 

 I'.rtalnly not more than five. 



