28 



20 days later than the same word was received in 1925. Until this 

 season 1925 had been the record year for late continuance of patrol. 



Very early in the season it became evident to the patrol that the 

 ice year was an unusual one. On the first cruise, April 1 to 19, 

 numerous bergs were sighted and reported off the eastern edge of the 

 Grand Banks between the forty-fifth and forty-second parallels as 

 was to be expected, but north of 45° reports showed that ice conditions 

 were extremely bad. One vessel that tried to use the Cape Race 

 tracks westbound early in April was forced to skirt the edge of field 

 ice and bergs southward for 250 miles near the forty-eighth meridian. 

 She reported from the northern sectors "solid packed bergs and 

 growlers extending as far as can be seen to the north, west, south, 

 and southeast." 



In view of the extremely heavy field ice and berg conditions pre- 

 vailing between the forty-seventh and fiftieth meridians, the shifting 

 north of the Canadian routes from "D" to "E" on the regular date, 

 April 10, seemed very inadvisable to the patrol. Conditions were 

 so bad along the "E" tracks when they were put into effect that 

 many vessels for weeks did not try to force passage on them, but 

 detoured to the south 80 to 100 miles so as to pass around the southern 

 end of the field ice of the Labrador Current. 



From April 20 to June 1 the field ice retreated until it was all north 

 of the forty-ninth parallel and no longer being reported to the patrol. 

 The bergs, however, remained in enormous numbers. They did not 

 gain any extreme southerly positions, as nearly all of them that 

 reached the forty-third parallel were curved to the westward around 

 the Tail of the Banks. During June the bergs south of latitude 

 48° N., though still above normal in numbers, began to thin out. It 

 is impossible to give exact figures of the numbers of bergs in any year 

 because of great duplication of reports from near the Canadian tracks 

 and of scarcity of reports of ice from other areas. Taking all known 

 factors into consideration, however, it is always possible to make 

 very fair estimates. In 1929 it is estimated that there were 460 

 different bergs south of the forty-eighth parallel during May and 376 

 different bergs during June. When it is realized that 386 bergs 

 constitute the average number to drift south of the forth-eighth 

 parallel during the whole of a normal ice year the severity of the 1929 

 season from an ice standpoint is at once apparent. 



Throughout the season it was noted that the surface water was 

 2° or more colder than average for the date in most of the ice-patrol 

 area north of the forty-second parallel. The amount of water just 

 in the wave-mixed surface layers of the area concerned is so great 

 that it is hardly conceivable that even the large number of icebergs 

 which drifted south of the forty-eighth parallel chilled the water 

 measurably in melting. The probabilities are that the reason for 



