11 



eastern edge close to the forty-sixth parallel was said to be 300 feet 

 high. 



On May 10 a second thorough search was made of the axis of the 

 Labrador Current between the forty-fourth and forty-third parallels. 

 One large berg was found in 43° 00' N., 49° 20' W. As it was drifting 

 rapidly southward at first, it was trailed closely until the night of 

 the 15th, when it was lost during a southerly gale with fog. Even 

 while in waters about 34° F. in temperature this berg was seen to 

 turn over completely at least once a day, and more frequently to 

 list deeply. It must have been so finely balanced that slight uneven 

 melting was sufficient to cause it to change position. Being massive 

 and rounded, very few pieces were detached as it rolled. The 

 southerly drift was checked at about 42° 20' N., 49° 30' W., from 

 which position the movement of the berg was to the westward past 

 the Tail, always a number of miles north of the cold wall. 



From 42° 48' N., 50° 47' W., the drift of this berg was southward 

 again. When lost on the 15th it was approximately in 42° 15' N., 

 50° 40' W., only 40 miles north of the westbound "B" tracks, but 

 presumably about to be carried eastward along the cold wall. The 

 failure of the above berg to drift south along the forty-ninth meridian 

 into the Gulf Stream on the 11th made it seem certain that the 

 "B" tracks were safe for the time being. Accordingly, on the 

 evening of the 12th a message was sent to Coast Guard headquarters 

 recommending that the United States-Europe tracks be shifted north 

 from "A" to "B" until further notice. On the night of April 15 

 word was received from the Hydrographic Office that track "B" 

 would become effective westbound on May 18 and eastbound on 

 May 25. 



During the third cruise an unusually large number of bergs were 

 reported as between the forty-sixth and forty-eighth parallels, be- 

 tween longitudes 46° W. and 48° W. There were at times some 

 remnants of field ice in the central portion of this area. Field ice 

 and many bergs and growlers were reported by the few vessels that 

 crossed the ice area north of the forty-eighth parallel. South of 

 the forty-fifth parallel the bergs were comparatively few in number 

 and widely scattered. The ones observed by the patrol decreased in 

 size but slowly because the water around them was only 2° to 4° 

 above the freezing point of fresh water. Eight oceanographic 

 stations were taken and worked out during the cruise. 



The fog that caused the patrol vessel to lose the berg trailed from 

 the 10th to the loth cleared at 2.30 p. m. on the 17th. The remainder 

 of that day and all of the 18th were spent searching south of the Tail 

 to relocate the southernmost known ice. The berg of the 15th could 

 not be found again, but another berg was sighted late in the after- 

 noon. A feature of the last two days of the patrol was a fiood of 



