133 



and 12 are not dissimilar to those which were found to exist during 

 the fall of 1923, even the respective temperatures corresponding with 

 those observed in the same localities last fall. 



A comparison between the temperatures found in the heart of the 

 icy northern water around the Grand Bank in 1924 with those found 

 there the spring of 1923 reveal the fact that the temperature of the 

 former was 0.6° to 1° higher than the latter. This may be due 

 not only to the warmer winter's chilling proceeding to a less degree 

 than usual, but is also dependent to a certain extent on the marked 

 absence of ice, especially field ice which in season normally extends 

 for hundreds of miles over coastal shelves to the northward. 



The influence of the abnormally warm masses over the New- 

 foundland shelf this spring and the absence of ice reacted, then, to 

 ameliorate the icy waters from the north. It is pointed out that 

 failure to find water masses of extremely dissimilar temperature and 

 salinity in the ice regions this spring was due to such abnormal fac- 

 tors outlined above and in no manner do absences of abrupt hydro - 

 graphical changes under such conditions indicate a weak and inac- 

 tive state of circulation. Such a premise being untenable, more- 

 over, Avhen we are confronted with evidence such as the rate of drift 

 of berg No. 2 and current records of 0.8 knot per hour, which were 

 observed several times along the eastern edge of the Grand Bank. 



THE NORTHEASTERN GRAND BANK 



Distribution of temperatures and salinities of the water mass 

 which lay over the noi-theastern part of the Grand Bank was in- 

 vestigated May 2 to 16, the results of which are shown in sketches 

 13 and 14, the temperatures and salinities both show the manner in 

 which the Arctic water coming down from the north floods this 

 region of the Grand Bank. The isotherms strikingly portray with 

 the position of the coldest water the manner in which the current 

 from the north splits in tw^o branches in the vicinity of 46° 20' 

 north, and 50° 10' west. On the other hand it indicates that Banks 

 water is less liable to be displaced inshore and to the southward 

 than any other place and, too, there probably is a tendency indicated 

 herein for the Banks water to spread northeastward. 



GRAND BANKS 



Sketches 15 to 18 show the relative distribution of Arctic and 

 coastal water over the Grand Bank area June 25 to 29. The extent 

 to which Arctic water spreads in over the bottom is shown on the 

 crosshatched area of sketches 15 and 16. The manner in which fresh 

 coastal water spreads offshore is also clearly shoAvn on sketches 17 

 10761—24 10 



