58 



The- fourth berg to drift south of the Tail was reported by a 

 steamer on the 25th about 100 miles west of the Tail on the south- 

 west slope. The patrol stood by it for the next tln-ee days when it 

 had completely melted away. It did not drift dm-ing this period 

 over 15 miles from the position first sighted. This ice was thought 

 to be one and the same last seen by the patrol on April 21 then in 

 on the Bank about 50 miles to the northward. 



The last day of the month the steamer Newfoundland, on her 

 regular run between St. Johns and Liverpool, reported passing a 

 total of 35 large bergs and numerous small ones on the extreme 

 northern edge of the Grand Bank. This suddenly boosted the num- 

 ber of bergs south of the forty-eighth parallel for the month above 

 normal. The position of this ice was somewhat to the westward of 

 its usual path along the eastern slope of the Bank and therefore we 

 expected that most of the bergs would eventually drift to southwest- 

 ward, toward Cape Race. 



Field ice was reported twenty times and on one day, xlpril 7, it 

 stretched in a broken line with few interruptions from near Cape 

 Race to the east edge of the Bank in latitude 46° 00'. The farthest 

 south position was recorded on the 13th instant when an open field 

 was sighted in latitude 45° 14' on the eastern side of the Bank. A 

 field also projected out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, its southern 

 limits being reported 25 miles north of Sable Island on April 19. 



One of the most striking points in connection with the ice distribu- 

 tion for the month of April is plainly to be discerned by glancing at 

 the ice map for the period. (Fig. 23, p. 57.) Practically all the ice 

 sighted and reported for the month was confined to the limits of the 

 continental shelf. This was due to the prevalence of high atmospheric 

 pressure over Canada and Newfoundland giving a consequent pre- 

 dominance of northeasterly winds combined mth the oceanic fact 

 that warm Atlantic water pressed closer to the continental slopes 

 during April than is normal for the season. These two factors also 

 interfered with the normal southward distribution of the Arctic ice. 



There was a total of 189 ice reports relating to the positions of 93 

 bergs during the month of April south of Newfoundland (the forty- 

 eighth parallel). Only 4 bergs, however, drifted south of the Tail 

 of the Bank. A normal month provides for 83 bergs south of the 

 forty-eighth parallel and 9 south of the Tail, therefore icebergs dur- 

 ing April were slightly in excess of normal, but the southward 



distribution was not. 



MAY 



The 1st to the 5th days of May provided on the whole a very good 

 visibility, affording the patrol an opportunity to search northward 

 along the eastern slope of the Grand Bank. No ice was seen or 

 reported, however, during this interval south of the forty-seventh 



