DAVIS STRAIT AND LABRADOR SEA 



55 



It is seen from the above table that the width, velocity, and conse- 

 (juent transport of the West Greenland Current vary considerably 

 tiom year to year. The close agreement between the Meteor's and 

 dctieral Greene's Cape Farewell observations March to August 1935, 

 as well as the Godthaab'^s and Marion's Ivigtut observations, regard- 

 ing the volume of current, August to October 1928, indicate that the 

 variations in the transport of the West Greenland Current sometimes 

 are of long periods. A doubling of the volume of the West Green- 

 land Current along the southwest coast of Greenland is noted in 2 of 

 tlie 3 years (1928 and 1933). It is also interesting to note from the 

 table that the summer which recorded the deficiency in volume of 

 current off Ivigtut, 1931, also marked a major branching of the cur- 

 rent off Cape Farewell, as shown on the dynamic topographic map 

 for that year (fi^. 123, p. 167). The foregoing suggests that the sum- 

 mers of 1928 and 1933, on the one hand, and the summer of 1931, on 

 the other, represent two distinct types of the system of circulation off 

 West Greenland. According to this view, the slope band in some 

 summers increases in volume between Cape Farewell and Ivigtut, 

 ■u'hile in other summers the West Greenland Current may branch 

 southwestward at Cape Farewell, as much as two-thirds of its 

 volume mixing offshore in the Labrador Sea. 



Temperature and salinity. — The relative positions of, and areas 

 occupied hj^ Atlantic and Arctic water, and the values of the tem- 

 perature and the salinity in the maps and sections for 1931, 1933, and 

 1934 (figs. 30 to 35) do not differ materially from those described for 

 1928. 



In order to compare one summer with another and also consecutive 

 months of a single summer, the minimum temperatures of the east 

 Greenland Arctic water and the maximum temperatures of the At- 

 lantic water of the West Greenland Current have been arranged in 

 table form : 



EAST GREENLAND ARCTIC WATER— CAPE FAREWELL 

 (Average minimum summer temperature, 0.6°; average depth, 33 meters) 



1 Not included as conjectured to be outside East Greenland Arctic Water. 

 EAST GREENLAND ARCTIC WATER— IVIGTUT 

 (Average minimum summer temperature, 0.82°; average depth, 60 meters) 



