DAVIS STRAIT AND LABRADOR SEA 183 



below the West Greenland Current is seen high salinity water which 

 will eventually become deep water through cabbeling as it progres- 

 sively sinks along its cyclonic path around the northern end of the 

 Labrador Basin, 



Below the deep water is to be seen a small amount of bottom water 

 with temperatures of less than 2° C. This bottom water is in 

 very slow cyclonic circulation with a general southerly direction. 



South Wolf Island — Cape Farewell. — Figure 139 represents verti- 

 cal sections of temperature and salinity between South Wolf Island, 

 Labrador, and Cape Farewell, Greenland, based on the 1935 observa- 

 tions of the General Greene., stations 2026 to 2047. As in figure 138, 

 the more rapid currents in the upper levels are recognizable at the 

 sides of the sections. In the intermediate water the isohaline of 

 34.90%o again serves to bound the lower surface at about 2,000 

 meters, although the temperature at this level is about 3.2 C, some- 

 what warmer than the lower surface of the intermediate water in 

 the more northerly section of figure 138. The temperature minimum 

 is again shown at about 1,500 meters. The deep-water salinity 

 maximum is shown more clearly than in figure 138, possibly because 

 the greater depth here permits a better development of downward 

 decrease of salinity below the maximum and possibly because since 

 the formation of these maxima is intermittent figure 139 may have 

 approached more nearly a horizontal maximum than did figure 138. 

 The bottom water, with temperatures lower than about 2° C, has 

 lower temperatures than those of the bottom water in the more 

 northerly section. This is probably explained by the greater depths 

 in figure 139, the greater thickness of deep water, and the better 

 chance of minimum temperatures surviving mixture with warmer 

 water from higher levels. 



Figures 140 to 145, inclusive, represent longitudinal vertical sec- 

 tions of temperature and salinity along eastern, middle, and w^estern 

 courses through the Labrador Sea, Davis Strait, and Baffin Bay 

 from south of 50° N. latitude to Smith Sound. Attention is called 

 to the fact that these are composite sections based on observations 

 of the Godthaab., Marion, and General Gree^w made during the 

 summer months in 1928, 1931, 1933, 1934, and 1935. The location 

 and identity of the stations upon which these sections are based 

 are shown in figure 135. In examining these sections, the direction 

 of the horizontal currents should be borne in mind. In the upper 

 levels, at least, the sections are not along the axis of the major 

 currents and in some parts (for instance, just south of Davis Strait 

 Ridge) are nearly at right angles to the direction of flow. Con- 

 sidering the non-synoptic character of the sections, they demonstrate 

 very well the division between the intermediate water and the deep 

 water of the Labrador Sea as did the transverse sections, figures 138 

 and 139. At the southern end of the midlongitudinal section (fig. 

 143), in a depth of about 800 meters, there is shown a salinity mini- 

 mum typical of what Wiist (1935) has considered to be North Atlantic 

 intermediate water having a major meridional component south- 

 ward. An examination of the dynamic heights shows this water 

 to be moving northward. It is the view of the authors that this 

 is mixed water formed by cabbeling along the boundaries of the 

 Labrador and Atlantic Currents and moving in a direction similar 



