Velocity and temperature profiles were constructed for each of the three 

 sections and volume of flow and mean temperature computed. The re- 

 sulting values, expressed in milhons of cubic meters per second, and de- 

 grees centigrade respectively are as follows; northern section 3.35 and 

 1.60; southwestern section 0.73 and 0.07; southeastern section 2.55 and 

 2.75. Thus about 78% of the Labrador Current followed the eastern 

 branch. If bergs may be looked upon as drift bottles indicating the 

 direction and branching of the currents their observed behavior over a 

 number of years shows that usually during the early part of the season 

 most of the current in the eastern branch flows southward through the 

 valley between the Grand Banks and Flemish Cap and that little or no 

 recurving to the east and north occurs between the branch point and the 

 latitude of Flemish Cap. As the season advances, however, an increasing 

 amount of such a diversion takes place and a successively larger propor- 

 tion of the bergs passing south of the branch point in the eastern branch 

 move off to the eastward north of Flemish Cap. It must be remembered, 

 of course, that toward the end of the season, wastage and erosion of the 

 bergs means that a larger proportion of the bergs passing the 49th parallel 

 are "sailors" than is the case during the earlier months of the season. 

 Never the less the seasonal increase in the number of drift tracks of bergs 

 diverting eastward north of Flemish Cap is so marked as to lead to the 

 inference that some seasonal eastward branching of the current occurs 

 in this region and may account for some of the seasonal decrease in the 

 volume of flow of the Labrador Current noted at sections farther south. 

 The time interval of about 1 month which elapsed between the last occu- 

 pation of section T when a volume of flow of L19 milhon cubic meters 

 per second was found at that section, and the occupation of the triangle 

 in July when 2.55 million cubic meters per second represented the volume 

 of flow of the eastern branch, prevents any precise deductions from 

 these observations as to the proportion of such a diversion north of 

 Flemish Cap. 



There is no assurance that the northeastern corner of the triangle, 

 located at 50° N., 49° W., does not extend part way into a counter-clock- 

 wise eddy offshore of and possibly associated with the eastward diversion 

 north of Flemish Cap. That this may have been the case is suggested 

 by the fact that the volume of flow past the northern section of the 

 triangle is slightly greater than the volume of flow of 3.01 million cubic 

 meters per second of the Labrador Current past the South Wolf Island 

 section a few days later. Immediately following the occupation of the 

 triangle a section was run from South Wolf Island, Labrador, to Cape 

 Farewell, Greenland. This volume of flow and a mean temperature of 

 2.21° may be compared with mean values of earlier occupations of this 

 section during the period from 1928 to 1941 of 4.0 milhon cubic meters 

 per second and 2.5°. From this, if the earlier values may be considered 

 normal, it will be seen that both the volume of flow and the mean tem- 

 perature of the Labrador Current were subnormal in July 1948 as was 



81 



