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circulation about bergs under all conditions has been thoroughly 

 investigated and is well understood. 



7. MISCELLANEOUS 



Detailed sounding and bottom sampling work about the Grand 

 Banks region would be very useful, practically as well as scientifically. 

 For the past five centuries the fishermen of France have been fre- 

 quenting this area, yet even to-day the French scientists admit that 

 they know almost nothing about the composition or detailed bottom 

 configuration of the top or slopes of the Grand Banks plateau. Steam 

 trawlers are annually increasing in numbers there. These vessels can 

 not proceed haphazardly with their fishing like the old fashioned 

 sailing vessels. Their costs prohibit hit or miss methods. They must 

 know promptly where the greatest numbers of fish are located and 

 where the bottom characteristics are not destructive to their expensive 

 gear. Well coordinated scientific investigations are caUed for by the 

 fisheries problems alone. 



In 1927 one of the French Government ships attending the fishing 

 fleet reported that three new shoals were situated less than 30 miles 

 to the westward of the main track of bergs along the 1,000-fathom 

 curve of the eastern slope of the Grand Banks. These shoals, though 

 small, were said to have only 8 to 11 fathoms of water over them. 

 Do they presage the birth of another low sandy island like that grave- 

 yard of the Atlantic, Sable Island, or will the water over them eventu- 

 ally be deepened by the waves of the open sea? Only continued 

 soundings in their vicinity can tell. 



On November 18, 1929, there occurred an earthquake centered in 

 the sea south of Newfoundland. The shock was severe enough to be 

 distinctly felt in the New England States, over 800 miles to the west- 

 ward. Twelve cables crossing the area of greatest disturbance were 

 broken in 23 places and the Burin Peninsula of Southern Newfound- 

 land was visited by an earthquake wave. This wave was so large 

 that much property and a number of lives were destroyed. Some 

 geologists believe that the section of the ocean floor where the cable 

 breaks occurred foundered during this earthquake. The ice-patrol 

 ships will have a good opportunity to sound out the supposedly sunken 

 area south-southeast of Cabot Strait with sonic depth finders, for they 

 must cross it every time they proceed between the ice regions and 

 their Nova Scotian base of supplies. If any great increase in depth 

 over the form values exists, it should be detected when the new sound- 

 ings are compared with the old ones that are already on the charts. 



