January 



By 2 January light, broken, but closely packed ice had drifted 

 southward along the east coast to 60° 30' N., and on the 16th the 

 southern edge of this ice had reached Cape Farewell. Heavy ice 

 was reported along the coast northward of Cape Adelaer on the 

 18th. Between the 18th and 30th this belt of ice had rounded 

 Cape Farewell and reached northwesterly along the west coast 

 to the vicinity of 61° N., 50°28' W. A shore lead extended around 

 Capes Desolation and Thorvaldsen to beyond the approaches to 

 Brede and Skov Fjords and passage was possible to those fjords 

 by rounding the northern limit of the storis belt. Pack ice was 

 reported within about 12 to 15 miles north of the Iceland coast 

 at Straumnes on 19 January and within 7 miles of Straumnes on 

 23 January reaching a southern extreme in 66° 26' N., 23° 53' W., 

 on that date. The seaward extent of this ice was not known and it 

 may have been patches or detached fields, for the southern limits of 

 the main body of storis were reported on 28 January through 

 66°18' N., 27°00' W., to 67°37' N., 24°07' W., to 67°54' N., 17°34' 

 W., the closest approach to the Iceland coast then being over 60 

 mile's distant. A period of continuing warm winds assisted the 

 ships in breaking out the winter ice in Tunugdliarfik and that fjord 

 was again mostly clear by 29 January. 



February 



The storis continued to move northwestward along the southwest 

 coast during early February reaching northwesterly limits from 

 61°10' N., 50°00' W., to 61°17' N., 49°30' W., on 1 February. By 

 8 February the northerly extreme of the main body of storis had 

 receded to 61° 05' N., but detached floes were scattered northward 

 to 61° 18' N. Strong northerly winds moved this ice southward 

 and destroyed most of it north of 59°55' N., and west of 46°20' W., 

 by the 12th. Only a narrow belt had been present since the first 

 of the month in the area south of 61° N., along the east coast so 

 little ice was in a position immediately to move past Cape Farewell 

 to replenish the ice thus dissipated and that ice remaining west 

 of Farewell gradually disintegrated during the remainder of the 

 month. No information is available concerning the ice limits off 

 the north coast of Iceland during the month of February. 



March 



On 4 March a ship enroute to a southwest Greenland port en- 

 countered no storis off the southwest coast but by the 10th a belt 

 of heavy storis approximately 29 miles wide had rounded Cape 

 Farewell to the vicinity of Sermersok where it narrowed to 10 

 miles and extended northward to Simiutak (Skov Fjord). From 



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