20 



It is interesting to note that throughout the tour of Baffin Bay 

 and Davis Strait, no pack ice (sea ice) was found except in a rather 

 small field in the vicinity of Cumberland Sound. The month of 

 September, as a rule, witnesses a minimum amount of pack ice m 

 Baffin Bay, when the fields are usuallj^ restricted to the Baffin Land 

 coast and its offing. The condition, however, where not a single 

 scrap of pack ice exists in Baffin Bay, is unusual. Our observations 

 agree with those of the schooner Efie M. Morrissey (Capt. Bob 

 Bartlett) which crossed Melville Bay in the latter part of July; the 

 remarkable scarcity of ice and the high temperature of the surface 

 water being subjects of Bartlett's comment. The Northland found 

 relatively warm surface water, as high as 40° F. on the Greenland side, 

 and 36° F. off the Baffin Land coast. Wlien we cruised past the 

 entrance of Lancaster Sound with excellent visibility no ice whatsoever 

 could be seen to the westward, and it was felt that a ship built for ice 

 navigation could easily have transited to the Pacific. 



Investigators during the past few years have reported independently 

 from widely scattered regions of the Arctic on the evidence of a change 

 of climate and a gradually warming of the sea. Warmer water masses 

 in West Greenland than 20 years ago is indicated in the larger catches 

 of codfish by the native Greenlanders than formerly. There are no 

 figures available for the total catch, foreign fishermen taking many 

 more than the natives, from the offshore banks. The Atlantic cod 

 (gatus morrhua) finds most favorable a temperature range of about 

 3° to 4° C, while in colder water the fish are liable to be scarce or 

 absent. The West Greenland catch has mounted amazingly since 

 1916—250,000 pounds, to 12 million pounds, in 1939. There are of 

 course more natives fishing today than 20 years ago but this fails to 

 discount the fact that there are also many more cod now than then. 

 The Atlantic cod appeared in great numbers hi 1917 at Julianehaab; 

 in 1919 it struck on at Godthaab; hi 1922 it reached Sukkertoppen ; in 

 1934 Upernivik; and 1940 it was caught for the first time at Devils 

 Thumb (the southern part of Melville Bay). Egedesminde took its 

 first cod in 1928; 8 years later the catch weighed IY2 million pounds. 

 Similar evidence is furnished by the caplin (Angmagssat of the 

 Greenlanders— a herringlike salmon) which comes in great schools 

 along the West Greenland coast in springtime. It appeared for the 

 first time as far north as Upernivik in 1934, and like the cod it has 

 returned each summer, migrating farther and farther north. In 1940 

 caplin were taken at Devils Thumb; an unprecedented event in the 

 memory of the natives. The effects of a changing climate on the 

 production and drift of icebergs also merits scrutiny. 



Several years ago attention was called to the negative correlation 

 between the annual amount of pack ice in the East Greenland region 

 and that in the American sector. This relationship was corroborated 



