62 



and the same as reported in a dispatch of the 22d instant and as 

 previously discussed. It remained grounded in this spot; depth of 

 water 43 fathoms, for the next four or five days. 



The clearing of the fog on the 13th and 14th instant was due to 

 the northward spread of the summer time North Atlantic high pres- 

 sure area, which accordingly caused a shift of the wind from the 

 prevailing southerly direction to the northwest quadrant. Not 

 only was this clear weather a great boon to the patrol, enabling it to 

 accurately fix the position of the southerly bergs, but also it per- 

 mitted steamships to the northward which were crossing the con- 

 tinental slope, east and west bound from Canadian ports, to sight 

 numerous bergs in those regions. There was a total of approxi- 

 mately 102 reports concerning the position of bergs north of the 

 forty-fifth parallel submitted by passing steamers to the patrol vessel 

 in order that we might collect and rebroadcast such information to 

 other ships. In fact, during this period of nine days there were 

 received about two-thirds of the reports for the entire month, all of 

 which concerned the location of bergs distributed from the forty-fifth 

 parallel northward to the forty-eighth parallel. The area containing 

 the most abundant amount of ice was between the forty-sixth and 

 forty-eighth parallels on the eastern side of the Bank. Nearly all 

 the aforementioned ships were using track E, and the distribution 

 of bergs as shown from the map indicated this populous belt extended 

 northeast and southwest from just inshore of Flemish Cap south- 

 westward in over the Bank to an extremely western position of 

 longitude 50° 20'. 



The duration of clear weather was comparatively short, for on the 

 15th instant about noon the fog shut in again, with earnestness. This 

 illustrates the general behavior of weather conditions during the 

 spring of the year and with which the patrol is obliged to contend. 

 Prevailing atmospheric circulation supplies a more or less constant 

 indraft of warm moisture-laden winds which blow from the southerly 

 quarter and the Gulf Stream. These winds, reaching the relatively 

 cold water which surrounds the Banks, are cooled and their moisture 

 is precipitated mostly in the form of fog interspersed with rain. 

 Occasional interruptions come in the form of high-pressure atmosphere 

 phenomena which usually bring clear weather for a short time only, 

 so that the patrol has come to expect on the average a period of 

 four to seven days of thick weather followed by two or three days of 

 clear visibility and then a resumption of fog. Before the fog rolled 

 in on the 15th the patrol vessel had time to identify one of the 

 southerly bergs as observed the day previously which was then 

 drifting 1.5 knots per hour southwestward past the Tail. Here then 

 was a potential menace which was probably drifting to the westward, 

 and from the current map probably on to the southwest slope; 



