eastward north of Davis Strait leaving a difference of 0.6 to transit 

 Davis Strait into the Labrador Sea and this, added to the 0.5 which 

 branched westward from the West Greenhmd Current across the 

 longitudinal section south of Davis Strait, would make a total of 1.1 

 instead of the 3.8 found as the Labrador Current off Loks Land. 



Among the possible reasons for these discrepancies is the treatment 

 as synoptic, the series of observations which extended over a period of 

 more than 2 weeks. It is considered, however, that the major source 

 of trouble is that the reference surface used was not motionless. 

 Farther south in the Labrador Sea a reference surface of 1,500 decibars 

 has been found to approximate a reasonably motionless surface. It is 

 probable that the motionless surface in Baffin Bay is not the same and 

 that it has pronounced relief in the proximity of Davis vS trait on both 

 sides of the ridge. 



Figures 33 through 36 show the temperature distribution along the 

 South Wolf Island-Cape Farewell section, the longitudinal section 

 across Davis Strait ridge, the Loks Land-Fyllas Bank section and the 

 Cape Kater, Xugssuak Peninsula section in sequence. The South 

 Wolf Island-Cape Farewell section has been occupied in a number of 

 different years and we may compare this occupation with the 15-year 

 average, 1948-62. For this comparison an average temperature and 

 an average salinity is computed for the intermediate water using all 

 observations from depths between 450 and 1,750 meters at stations 

 offshore of the peripheral, currents. For the deep water, scaled 

 values have been used for each station at each of the levels, 2,000, 

 2,500, 3,000 and 3,500 meters. Characterized in this manner the 

 1962 occupation shows the following comparison with average values: 



Figure 33 shows a smaller than normal area of intermediate water 

 and it appears to be somewhat warmer than usual. The 2,000-meter 

 level is sliglitly colder than average and the deeper levels are essentially 

 at average temperatures. Because of the small number of stations 

 as deep as 3,500 meters the values for this level are not considered to 

 be representative of the section. The salinities are less than average 

 and the densities are, in general, less than average by about 0.02 in at- 

 The temperature inversion which results in a slight temperature 

 maximum layer between about 1,500 and 2,000 meters was less pro- 

 nounced than usual. From this section it can be traced northward 



58 



