SCIENTIFIC EESULTS 57 



Ray to Cape North. The ice is usually tiohtest on the Cape Breton 

 side of Cabot Strait, and loosest on the Newfoundland side. In light 

 ice years open water often extends northward from Cape Ray to tlie 

 Bay of Islands. 



TThe St. Lawrence pack recedes in much the same manner that it 

 advanced, the lower gulf being blockaded longest by the ice floes. 

 After the river ice is broken up by the Canadian Government ice 

 breakers, an ice patrol of the gulf is established in order to furnish 

 the best information possible to entering ships. The ice conditions 

 of the Gulf of St. Lawrence are of great economic importance to 

 Canada, practically all of her overseas trade passing through this 

 waterway on its course to and from the river ports of Montreal and 

 Quebec. The gulf is usually safe for navigation by the first half 

 of May. and in some years even as early as the latter part of April. 

 N^avigation to Montreal and Quebec normally closes in the month of 

 December. 



ANNVAL Variations in the Limits of Pack Ice in the Western North 



Atlantic 



The pack ice which drifts southward along Labrador blockading 

 the coast and often encircling Newfoundland is subject to great 

 annual variations. In some years the amount may be so small as 

 to be almost negligible while during others the fields are extensive. 

 Records for the past 350 years report important variations in the 

 annual limits of j^ack ice in the western North Atlantic. Martin 

 Frobisher, searching for a northwest passage to India in 1576, 

 encountered great floes and huge icebergs off southern Bafiin Land, 

 but in 1588 John Davis landed without difficulty at several points 

 along this normally icebound coast. Kane in 1853 found ice condi- 

 tions very favorable and thus was able to sail farther north between 

 Greenland and Ellesmere Land than any previous explorer, but 

 McClintock. four summers later, in the Fo,r following the usual 

 track across Melville Bay was nipped and held tightly in the pack 

 until released the next spring. The annual abundance of pack has 

 also been closely followed by the NcAvfoundland sealers who realize 

 that a scarcity of ice usually means a poor catch and small profits. 

 Trans-Atlantic ships have for years been re])orting ice sighted to 

 the hydrographic offices of their respective countries in the hopes of 

 greater common safety. The seventh international geographical con- 

 gress held at Berlin designated the Danish Meteorological Institute 

 at Copenhagen as the official repository of reports on ice conditions 

 in the Arctic regions. That institution publishes annually a digested 

 report on ice conditions, together with maps showing the pack-ice 

 limits by months. The Canadian signal service, from its posts in 

 Labrador and Newfoundland is keeping shipping advised daily of 

 ice conditions past these stations. The international ice patrol has 

 also recorded the boundaries of the pack south of Newfoundland 

 since 1913. 



The variations in the limits of the pack ice ofl' Newfoundland have 

 been studied by Meinardus (11)06) ; Mecking (1906 and 1907) ; Schott 

 (1904 and 1904a) ; and Smith (1925 and 1926a). Meinardus (1905), 

 investigated what relationship prevailed between the annual amounts 

 of pack ice in the western North Atlantic and certain contemporary 



