General fragmentation of the pack begins in the latter part of May 

 with accelerated breakup starting in the latter part of June. Inner 

 Melville Bugt, however, retains a number of giant floes and fields. 

 Puddling and rotting of ice begins off Nugssuaq and Holmes 0er by the 

 end of June and becomes general throughout the area a few weeks later. 

 By mid-July large areas of open water are present. The Melville Bugt 

 pack, south of 75° N is fragmented into brash, block, and small floes at 

 this time; the pack completely dissipates by the end of the month. 



Tasiussaq Bugt to Disko Bugt - Bays and fjords in this section of 

 the Greenland "coast become frozen by the end of November. The fast ice 

 advances seaward and rapidly ingulfs all of the outlying rocks and is- 

 lands that dot these coastal waters. Their outer rim outlines the sea- 

 ward margin of the fast ice. 



Thickness of the fast ice is generally 2 to 3 feet by early January 

 in the northern sector and by the latter part of January in the southern 

 sector. The ice will increase to k feet thick and locally to 5 feet by 

 late February and March. Generally, the ice is flat and fairly smooth. 

 Pressure ridges are present most frequently near the margin of the ice. 



Breakup by the fast ice begins as early as mid-May in Disko Bugt and 

 Vaigat, and by mid-June in the areas to the north. Sea ice is gone com- 

 pletely from these waters by mid-July. Only in the northern part of the 

 sector there appear occasional remnants of ice as a result of the wind and 

 currents, 



Climatological data indicates that snow cover varies quite extensively. 

 In the northern sector it usually is in the range of 6 to 8 inches and in- 

 creases to 12 inches in the south. Snow drifts, therefore, should be cor- 

 respondingly greater in the southern sector. Their estimated range is 

 from 12 to 15 inches in the north and 18 and 24 inches in the south. 



The coastal waters abound in glacial ice; however, many of the inlets 

 and passages are free of glacial ice. Most of these inlets contain large 

 quantities of bergs, bergy bits, and growlers which break off the numer- 

 ous glaciers located at the head of the many fjords. 



The Outer Ice from Tasiussaq Bugt to Disko Bugt - The sea ice west- 

 ward of the margin of the fast ice f orms~"reTat ively" late along this sector 

 of the coast. It is generally the least stable of any of the regions in 

 Baffin Bay except, perhaps, the area of the North Open Water. While the 

 freezing process envelopes all of Baffin Bay and Davis Strait in November, 

 the offshore waters from Disko Bugt to the vicinity of Tasuissaq Bugt 

 remain relatively free of sea ice. It is not until December that freezing 

 finally occurs. 



As the freezing process begins and the waters acquire a thicker ice 

 layer, there remains, at distances of 10 to 20 miles offshore, a narrow 



