80 MARION AND GENERAL GREENE EXPEDITIONS 



It will be demonstrated, however, that the Arctic current shortly 

 after crossing Davis Strait Ridge is joined by a branch of the West 

 Greenland Current of greater volume. The union of these two 

 streams so fundamentally alters the physical character of the current 

 south of this point that a new designation is necessitated. The junc- 

 tion of the Baffin Land and West Greenland Currents not far south 

 of the Davis Strait Ridge may be said to represent, therefore, the 

 source region of the Labrador Current. 



THE SURFACE CURRENTS 



The surface waters of the American sector, July 22 to September 

 11, 1928, were in southward motion at velocities ranging from 5 to 

 38 miles per day in the axis of the currents.^ The surface current 

 map (fig. 47) reveals that the inshore margin of the Labrador Cur- 

 rent entered along the northern shores of the many bays and gulfs 

 which indent the American coast line, but such circuitous arms 

 sooner or later rejoined the trunk stream in the form of discharges 

 out of the southern sides of the same estuaries. Especially noticeable 

 are the major openings in the American littoral of Hudson Strait 

 and the Strait of Belle Isle. Considerable quantities of Labrador 

 Current entered along the Baffin Land side of Hudson Strait by 

 rounding Resolution Island and also by passing through Gabriel 

 Strait. Icebergs, according to Smith (1931), have been carried by 

 this inflow for a distance of 150 miles where, near Big Island, they 

 nearly all recurve and drift out past Cape Chidley, Labrador. 



Continuing down the coast, the Labrador Current followed an 

 easy sinuous course which exhibited two major bends — the one be- 

 tween Cape Harrigan and Cape Harrison, Labrador, and the other 

 between Cape Bauld and Funk Island, Newfoundland. The Coast 

 Guard's observations in the Labrador and Newfoundland areas in- 

 dicate that more bergs strand along the American coast opposite 

 these bends than elsewhere. The Labrador Current also received 

 continual contributions from the streams which in summer form 

 copious discharges from the many lakes and fiords. This reservoir 

 of fresh water along the inshore side of the current plus the water 

 released by melting drift ice doubtless compensates for the continual 

 salting which the current receives along its outer side. 



On meeting the northern face of the Grand Banks in the latitude 

 of St. John's the Labrador Current was split, and tlie slope band con- 

 tinued down the east side of the Grand Banks, while an inshore 

 branch followed the gully past Cape Race. It is the latter stream 

 which is responsible for the icebergs (Smith 1931, p. 151) often 

 reported in the vicinity of Cape Race, 



The offshore margin of the Baffin Land Current, as it emerged 

 from Baffin Bay the summer of 1928, was bounded by cyclonic vortices 

 as shown on figure 47. These were displaced, however, in the margin 

 of the Labrador Current, Hudson Strait to Hamilton Inlet, by bands 

 of current converging from the Labrador Sea. On the dynamic 



^ It will be noted that the Telocity values shown on fig. 47 differ in most rases 

 from those published by Smith (1931, fig. 96). The velocity values shown on the latter 

 illustration represent the average velocity of a given bniid of current, while in fig. 

 47 the values represent the maximum velocities in the axis of the currents. The recalcu- 

 lation of the dynamic heights in accordance with methods descril)e(l on p. 19 has also 

 modified the stream lines of the currents from those earlier recorded. 



