northeastward from a point about 10 miles south of Loks Land. 

 No further information is available until 18 August when the 

 approaches to Cape Searle were reported free of field ice. On 1 

 September no ice could be observed by a plane crossing Davis Strait 

 from Cape Searle to Sondrestrom Fjord, Greenland, and on 5 

 September there were no traces of any field ice within 50 miles of 

 the coast of Baffin Island from Cape Searle northward past Clyde 

 Inlet. The Hudson Bay trading ship Nascopie arrived at the River 

 Clyde trading post on the loth and had encountered no field ice 

 en route from Arctic Bay with the exception of some loose ice in 

 Lancaster Sound. 



Great numbers of bergs were distributed in the waters along the 

 coast of Baffin Island and south past Hudson Strait. Over 500 

 were counted along the shore between River Clyde and Cape Searle 

 on 5 September. Many were reported through Hudson Strait west- 

 ward to Big Island and a few were scattered into lower Frobisher 

 Bay and into Ungava Bay southward past Akpatok Island. 



The ice conditions were somewhat lighter than average in this 

 area during the summer and fall of 1945, the routes into Ungava 

 Bay and Frobisher Bay becoming navigable by the latter part of 

 July and the route westward into Hudson Bay probably navigable 

 at an even earlier date. The ice in Davis Strait receded both more 

 rapidly and more completely than has been reported during most 

 other seasons. The tongue that often extends down Baffin Bay 

 about 30 to 50 miles off the Baffin Island coast was not evident and 

 the coastal waters were clear northward past the entrance to 

 Lancaster Sound by early September. Although no detailed infor- 

 mation is available concerning the conditions in Hudson Bay west- 

 ward of Southampton Island, the Nascopie had successfully made 

 her passage to the trading posts in this area as well as northward 

 around the east coast of Baffin Island to the outlying posts at Fort 

 Ross and Arctic Bay. This and similar facts indicate that condi- 

 tions in the adjacent areas to the west and northwest may also 

 have been less severe than usual. 



GREENLAND AREA 

 November-December, 1944 



No ice other than the usual numbers of bergs and growlers was 

 reported in the coastal waters of southwest and southeast Green- 

 land until 26 December when a string of light broken ice was re- 

 reported near 61° N., on the east coast. Some bergs, however, had 

 drifted unusually far to the southeast of Cape Farewell, several 

 being reported in the vicinity of 58° N., 37° W., and one berg on 

 5 December at 58° 15' N., 35°05' W. Winter ice up to 16 inches in 

 thickness had formed in upper Tunugdliarfik Fjord by 5 December 

 and by the 14th the thickness had reached 25 inches. 



97 



