ICE OBSERVATION 



The ice particularly watched and tabulated by the international 



ice patrol is that which, in passing south along the east coast of 



Newfoundland, gets south of the forty-eighth parallel of latitude. 



Every recent annual report of the International Ice Patrol Service 



has contained a section on ice observation. The reader is referred 



to the 1926 report for a statistical compilation of ice observed in 



the years to and including 1926, and to the 1927 report for the ice 



conditions prevailing that year. The figures are based during the 



actual ice-patrol season on the reports to and the observations of 



the ice patrol vessels themselves. During the remainder of the year 



the reports of ice contained in the weekly Hydrographic bulletins 



of the United States Hj^drographic Office and special reports from 



Cape Race radio-compass station are depended on. A number of 



ice charts and a discussion of ice conditions month by month during 



1928 are given below: 



JANUARY 



There were no reports of ice during January, 1928 



FEBRUARY 



No bergs were reported by trans- Atlantic vessels during the month 

 from south of the forty-eighth parallel. Field ice from the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence was reported from between Cape Breton and Sable 

 Islands. Field ice was reported from several other localities, most 

 of which were north of 47° N., and all of which were north of 46° 30' N. 

 The other reports were confined to areas off the Newfoundland coast 

 between Cape Race and St. Johns, to the vicinity of 48° 00' N., 

 49° 30' W., and to the vicinity of 47° 00' N., 47° 30' W. 



MARCH 



During this month a number of bergs drifted south along the eastern 

 edge of the Grand Banks, but only one got south of the forty-fifth 

 parallel. Bergs were thickest along the eastern edge a little to the 

 north of this latitude. They were on the whole distinctly below 

 normal for the month in number, however. One berg was reported 

 from a few miles west of Flemish Cap. A few bergs were located 

 along the forty-eighth parallel to the westward of the forty-seventh 

 meridian. 



Field ice reached its greatest southerly extension for the year 

 during March. There were two reports of the Gulf of St. Lawrence 



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