DAVIS STRAIT AND LABRADOR SEA 33 



Godthaab. — The slope band of West Greenland Current which in- 

 tersected this section was 5.3 million cubic meters per second, thus 

 supporting previous computations, viz, that approximately 20 per- 

 cent of the current branched offshore between Fiskernaessett and 

 Godthaab. An appreciable reduction in the draft of the West Green- 

 land Current also occurred between these two points along the slope 

 (cf. figs. 9 and 10, profiles C and D). Additional westerly branch- 

 ing of the West Greenland Current is noted in the offshore end of the 

 Godthaab section, where 1.8 million cubic meters per second recurved 

 southward between stations 975 and 973. The slope band which re- 

 mained to continue northward was consequently reduced to 3.5 mil- 

 lion cubic meters per second or about one-half the volume of current 

 found off Ivigtut. 



Holsteinshorg. — The greatest and most striking decrease in volume 

 of the slope band of the West Greenland Current took place between 

 Godthaab and Holsteinsborg. (See fig. 10, p. 34.) The widening of 

 the Greenland shelf and the continued shoaling of the bottom at 

 the head of the Labrador Sea tended to deflect much of the West 

 Greenland Current westward around the Labrador Basin. Those 

 l^ortions of the West Greenland Current which remained to follow 

 the contour of the banks northward Avere also further reduced in 

 draft. Thus the Holsteinsborg profile shows the 5-centimeter-per- 

 second velocity line at a depth of 200 meters, in contrast to the 

 draft of this current, Cape Farewell, to Fiskernaessett, of 1,100 

 meters. 



The plane of the Holsteinsborg section intersected four separate 

 bands of current, but reference to the surface current map (fig. 8) 

 indicates that all these intersections belong to one and the same 

 stream which, guided by the channel between Little Hellefiske and 

 Great Hellefiske Banks, w^ound a northeasterly course. The net 

 volume of the northerly current past Holsteinsborg was 1.25 million 

 cubic meters per second, which, as can be seen, is only 25 percent of 

 the transport which was found off Godthaab. This agrees, more- 

 over with previous findings (p. 30) that major proportions of the 

 slope current were deflected offshore between Godthaab and Hol- 

 steinsborg, probably by the southern face of Little Hellefiske Bank. 

 The volume of the West Greenland Current so turned toward Ameri- 

 can shores was 1.95 million cubic meters per second, the bulk of the 

 discharge being directed between stations 984 and 987. 



No more impressive evidence is needed than this series of five 

 velocity profiles, figs. 9 and 10 (see also fig. 12) to demonstrate the 

 manner m which the West Greenland Current is distributed north- 

 ward from Cape Farewell, only 15 percent of its volume reaching 

 the entrance of Davis Strait. 



Egedesminde. — This section (fig. 10, profile F), with a northerly 

 transport of 1.3 million cubic meters per second, showed a slight 

 increase from that off Holsteinsborg and thus reversed the trend 

 which characterized the West Greenland Current for most of the 

 west coast. Reference to the dynamic topographic map (fig. 122, 

 p. 167) attributes the larger volume of flow off Egedesminde not to 

 any swelling of the West Greenland Current but to water contributed 

 locally by a counterclockwise eddy formed in the deep basin which 

 extends southwestward from the entrance of Disko Bay, The eddy 



