Lawrence River numerous open leads allowed the first ship of tlie 

 season to make the passage to Montreal. On March the 25th, the 

 SS Woodward arrived in Montreal and tlius started the great press 

 of shipping into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



D,uring the month, 60 bergs had come below 48° N. and at the end 

 of the month 56 remained in existence. As the sea ice moved, so 

 did the bergs. By the end of the month, oidy one berg lay east of 

 51° W. and one berg was already in visual sight from St. Pierre Island. 



The relative movement of the ice is reflected in the two isotherm 

 charts for the month. The 30° isotherm in figures 2 and 3 shows the 

 retreat of the ice. Figure 11 gives the limits of sea ice on the days 

 indicated and also summarizes the icebergs and growlers reported 

 during the montli south of 49° N. 



APRIL 



Ice conditions and ice movement during the first half of April was 

 similar to those of the latter part of March. Persistent northerly 

 and northeasterly winds continued to cojnpact the ice onto the coast 

 and around the southern portion of the Avalon Peninsula. During 

 this period, the loose pack ice extended as far west as 56°50' W. 

 and south to 44°40' N. in the Grand Banks region. By 15 April 

 there was no sea ice east of 51° W., south of the Strait of Belle Isle. 

 During the latter part of the montli, the sea ice continued to be 

 compacted onto the shore. Tlie narrow band of very heavy pack 

 ice with ridges approaching twenty feet hampered commercial traffic 

 along the eastern coast of Newfoundland. The ice continued to flow 

 westward around Cape Race and established an extensive field south 

 of the Avalon Peninsula. This ice crossed Track "E", which had 

 gone into effect on 11 April and caused shipping to divert to the south. 

 For several days the entire entrance to Placentia Bay was covered 

 with sea ice. 



The icebergs continued their southerly flow along the Avalon 

 Peninsula and around Cape Race forming in an area south of the 

 peninsula. Although the vast nuijority of the bergs remained en- 

 trapped in the field ice, a few broke out of the eastern edge and 

 moved across the northern slopes down to the central portion of the 

 banks. These came as far south as 45° N. :ind east to 50° W. where 

 they disintegrated due to mitural causes. Eighteen bergs crossed 

 the 48tli parallel between 1 April and JS April, however, at this 

 point the bergs to the north wei-c held fast by the heavy field ice 

 and no more bergs came south until 1 May. On 18 April, 74 bergs 

 were still in existence south of 48° N. 



\u the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the i)attern established during the 

 last week of March continued with a gia(hially opening lead located 

 along the western coast of Newfoundland and in the central portion 

 of the Gulf. By 10 April, vessels wcj-e able to proceed into the 



