81 



their chance of getting south past the islands and rocks of the Labra- 

 dor and Newfoundland shores and past the shoals and slack waters 

 that exist along the northern edges of the Grand Banks. 



JULY 



Though stiJl abnormally heavy from an ice standpoint, July, 1929, 

 when compared with the preceding month, shows a great decrease of 

 bergs along the Cape Race tracks. The ice extended a little farther to 

 the westward around Cape Race than in June, but it did not drift 

 through the guUey off this point beyond longitude 53° 10' W. Many 

 ships went east and west past Cape Race, and if any bergs had been 

 located farther to the westward they would certainly have been 

 reported. 



The few bergs reported from unusual positions near 45° 00' N., 

 54° 30' W., and 43° 00' N., 53° 00' W., were doubtless straggling 

 remnants of the ice that had made its way so freely to the westward 

 around the Tail during the previous month. The westward tendency 

 in the southern part of the ice-patrol area was definitely stopped 

 early in July by the pushing northeast to the Tail of an undulation 

 in the northern limits of the Gulf Stream. This invasion of warm 

 surface water almost entirely obliterated the extension of cold current 

 that had previously passed westward around the Tail. At the same 

 time it caused the southern branch of the Labrador Current to increase 

 in power and extension until it was carrying bergs southeast almost 

 to 41° N. 48° W. The United States-Europe ships had been recalled 

 from the extra southern A tracks, and such an unlooked-for final push 

 of ice and cold water caused the patrol deep concern. From the 11th 

 to the 24th it sent a number of large bergs drifting eastward right 

 along the path of the liners on the westbound B tracks. 



During the last few days of the month the southernmost bergs 



melted under the eyes of the patrol. Their final disintegration was 



quite rapid because of midsvmimer air and water temperatures and 



apparent mixture of the surrounding northern waters with the Gulf 



Stream drift. As the southern limit of the ice gradually retreated 



northward the patrol followed it along from berg to berg, for the push 



of the cold waters had weakened and no new ice was coming down 



to take the place of that melting below the Tail. The exact status of 



affairs a little to the northward along the eastern edge could not be 



determined during the closing days of the month because persistent 



fog remained over the narrow stream of pure, Labrador Current water 



that according to surface temperatures, still extended to just south 



of the forty-third parallel. 



AUGUST 



The long, heavy ice season finally ended during this month. August 

 saw but one report of ice from the ice-patrol area proper, that of a berg 

 on the 3d near the Newfoundland coast just north of St. John's. 



