operations over the Labrador coast north of Hamilton Inlet re 

 ported having sighted heavy field ice in the coastal area at Cape 

 Harrison on the 18th. Another flight observed some winter ice in 

 the Notre Dame Bay area on the 25th, but poor visibility made' ob- 

 servations of the extent of this ice impossible. On the 31st the pilot 

 on a coastwise flight from Hamilton Inlet to Notre Dame Bay re^ 

 ported a belt of closely packed field ice up to 30 miles wide along 

 that entire stretch of coast and strings of slush and sludge ice were 

 estimated to extend up to 30 miles seaward of this belt. 



Only two bergs are known to have drifted south past the 48th 

 parallel during March. One of these drifted into Conception Bay, 

 where it remained until melting, and the other grounded in Chance 

 Cove on the southeast coast of the Avalon Peninsula. This berg was 

 first sighted off Ferryland Head on the 14th. On the 15th a berg wasi' 

 reported just SE. of Cape Race and is believed to be the same berg. 

 On the 17th the berg was reported off Chance Cove and it was 

 sighted inshore at Chance Cove on the flights of the 20th, 25th, and [ 

 April 1. By April 3 it had broken into 3 pieces — two of which were^ 

 the size of small growlers and the other that of a large growler " 

 or a very small berg. No trace of this ice could be observed in ' 

 the immediate vicinity of the coast on April 9, so on the 10th of;;' 

 April a search was made of the area off the coast from Chance Cov^^' 

 to Cape Pine. Snow squalls and icing conditions encountered in thef^ 

 western portion of this search area made the completion of the in-j'^' 

 tended search area impracticable, but the search in most of the area 

 was considered to be complete and it was deemed improbable that 

 any sizable portion of the berg remained. Other bergs were sighted 

 along the coast north of 48° N., but almost all of these bergs were 

 inshore and had little probability qf reaching the Grand Banks area. 



In the St. Lawrence area the limits of the ice field continued to 

 recede during early March, but information concerning the changes 

 in the ice is very limited. An attempt was made on March 2 to de- 

 termine the limits and character of that ice east of Cabot Strait, 

 but a fog bank covered the area northward of Cape Breton Island 

 almost to the Newfoundland coast and only an occasional glimpse 

 of the surface was possible. 



On the 13th the flight northward along the Labrador coast toW 

 Hamilton Inlet returned southward from Goose Bay crossing the 

 gulf from the vicinity of Little* Mecatina Island to St. Paul Island. 

 With unlimited visibility in this area, it was possible to observe ice 

 conditions over a wide expanse to either side of the route flown 

 In the northeastern part of the gulf, between Newfoundland and 

 Quebec, little ice remained. The eastern half of this passage was 

 entirely clear and the western half, outside of a narrow belt of fast ate 

 ice along the shore, was about five-tenths to seven-tenths cover of m 

 broken sheet ice, none of which appeared to be very heavy and no 



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