17 



The break-up of the winter ice in Umanak and Karrats Fiords and 

 the Upernivik district normally occurs in late June or early July but 

 the bergs are said not to begin active dispersal until late July. Mid- 

 December and Christmas witness the formation of the winter ice and 

 stoppage of the bergs from escaping out of the fiords, Upernivik to 

 Disko Bay. The occurrence of large-scale calvings of the glaciers at 

 the time of spring tides was reported at Nugatsiak where Rink and 

 Umiamako Glaciers discharge with thunderous roars. The udsted- 

 bestyrer pointed out pieces of driftwood around his home which, 

 although 50 feet from the fiord at an elevation of 10 feet and about 

 5 miles from Rink Glacier, he claimed had been cast up there by the 

 swell from the calvings. 



The general distribution of the bergs, earlier remarked upon, with 

 greatest abundance in a 10-mile zone adjacent to the coast and de- 

 creasing as the distance from the shore increases, agrees with our 

 knowledge of the general counterclockwise circulation of Baffin Bay 

 and Davis Strait. (See U. S. Coast Guard Bulletin 19, pt. 3, p. 140.) 

 The current map drawn from the results of the 1928 Godthaab 

 Expedition, the only roughly synoptic oceanographic survey of Baffin 

 Bay, indicates a northwesterly set of 5 to 7 miles per day from Disko 

 to Cape York, and a south-flowing current of 12 miles per day off 

 Cape Dier, Baffin Land. The Northland, on its passage across Mel- 

 ville Bay, observed a set of 322° true, and a drift of 1.4 miles per hour. 

 During this period of approximately 24 hours a strong southeasterly 

 wind blew, which probably accelerated the primary current. On the 

 12-hour run westward across the mouth of Smith Sound, we experienced 

 a set of 337° true, with a drift of 0.7 knot per hour. The Baffin Land 

 Current must have been narrow, with a width less than 30 miles from 

 the coast, because no southerly set was noted by the Northland on 

 September 18 when completing the offshore stations of section B. 

 (See fig. 9.) A¥hen the coast was approached, however (to about 15 

 miles off Cape Dier), a south-running stream as much as 2 miles per 

 hour was experienced. The effects of this current were not long felt 

 because off Cumberland Sound, where we drifted for a day in the 

 fog, our position was found to have changed little. In view of the 

 foregoing, therefore, a general counterclockwise circulation and ice- 

 berg drift for Baffin Bay is reaffirmed. Bergs may be carried from 

 West Greenland glaciers directly across to the south-flowing Baffin 

 Land Current, but these are to be regarded in the light of present 

 information as exceptions to the rule. 



On leaving the region of Cumberland Sound a course was followed 

 against the West Greenland Current where it flows westward across 

 the Labrador Sea. (See fig. 10.) Statements have appeared from 

 time to time that many bergs calved from glaciers in East Greenland 



