Current at the Bonavista triangle. However, 12 occupations of this 

 triangle during the 6-year period 1948-53 are now available and the 

 results are summarized in table 1. In this table as well as in sub- 

 sequent tables, figures, and discussion the units are as follows: volume 

 of flow, 1 million cubic meters per second; mean temperature and 

 minimum observed temperature, degrees Centigrade; heat transport, 

 1 million cubic meter degrees C per second. In table 1 some of the 

 1950 values appear in parentheses to indicate a greater than usual 

 amount of estimation. In the first 1950 occupation a large change oc- 

 curred during the occupation of the southeast section of the triangle. 

 In the second 1950 occupation the southeast section was not occupied 

 and the values w^ere derived by difference. In the third 1950 occupa- 

 tion the southwest section was not occupied but it is estimated from 

 the other two sections that none of the Labrador Current was follow- 

 ing the western branch. 



The northwest section is considered to include the total Labrador 

 Current off Cape Bonavista, the southwest section including the 

 western branch and the southeast section including the eastern branch. 

 Thus the volume and heat transports are determined twice for any 

 occupation of the triangle, once on entering the triangle (northwest 

 side) and once on leaving the triangle (tne sum of the southwest and 

 southeast sides). The values under the heading "mean triangle" are 

 the means of these two determinations for volume and heat transport, 

 while the mean temperature is derived as the mean heat transport 

 divided by the mean volume transport. 



In figure 18 the individual values given in table 1 have been plotted 

 against time of year and identified by the last tw^o digits of the year of 

 observation. In all years where more than one occupation occurred 

 the rate of change was computed. Giving each year equal weight, 

 mean values, assumed to apply at the mean date and adjusted by the 

 mean rate, were taken as approximate seasonal normals. The mcon- 

 sistencies appearing in table 1 and figure 18 may be taken as an indica- 

 tion of the limitations of the observations and the methods employed 

 in their reduction. 



These seasonal normals have been used for comparison with the 

 1953 occupations of the Bonavista triangle. In the case of the South 

 Wolf Island section across the Labrador Current, although there have 

 been 16 occupations in as many different years from 1928 to 1953, 

 nearly all have been made at about the same time of year and no 

 attempt has been made to derive seasonal variation curves. Instead 

 the 1953 results have been compared with average values. For the 

 section F (between the Grand Banks and Flemish Cap) and the sections 



57 



