74 MARIOX EXPEDITIOX TO DAVIS STRAIT AND BAFFIN BAY 



bergs are held near their sources by intricate coastal cachnients, and 

 secondly, those that do escape seldom, if ever, drift so deeply into 

 lower latitudes that they attain the more populated tracks of ships. 

 There are also some basic differences in the ice line of the two coasts. 

 The inland ice crowds closer to the sea along the southern half of the 

 east coast than it does along the west; on the other hand, the east 

 coast north of the seventieth parallel exhibits a wider land fringe 

 than does the other side in the same latitude. 



The largest and most productive glacier in east Greenland is said 

 to issue from Kangerdlugssuak Fjord, near latitude 68' X., but the 

 size and the number of icebergs it produces is unknown. Garde 

 (1889, p. 228) lists the six most productive glaciers south of parallel 

 06 north, i. e., Angmagssalik, on the east coast as follows: Sermilik. 

 Ikerssuak, Pikiutdlek. Igdlutarssuk. Tingmiarmiut. and Anoritok. 

 Here again there are no data on the annual volume of discharge or 

 the number of icebergs. All the glaciers between Kangerdlugssuak 

 Glacier and Germania Land, a distance of over 500 miles, according 

 to Kayser (1928, p. 414) terminate at the head of deep fjords. Many 

 glaciers in Scoresby Sound produce massive box-shaped icebergs, but 

 tlie sliallow threshold across the fjord mouths imprison many 

 and few escape to sea. Xorth of Hudson Land and the seventy- 

 fourth parallel the rate of marginal discharge of the galcial ice de- 

 creases rapidly parth' on account of the slower movement of the 

 inland ice and partly on account of the sea ice, sealing the glacier 

 front. The interiors of some of the larger fjords, however, protected 

 from the direct force of the pack, open up regularly every sununer. 

 and many icebergs break away from the glacier fronts. There is, 

 nevertheless, only one glacier of this character in the northeast sector 

 which rivals the production of the greater glaciers of the west coast, 

 namely, Storstromen Glacier, in Dove Bay. The most active berg 

 glaciers are well distributed along the coast from Cape Billie, latitude 

 62' 10', to Scoresby Sound, in 70°, while northAvard the productivity 

 markedly decreases. Apparently there is little difference in the total J 

 annual volume of discharge between the east and west coasts (7,500 

 bergs from the west coast), but the closer blockade of sea ice in the 

 east greatly diminishes the berg supply to tlie Atlantic. 



f 



Drift axd Distkibitiox of East Greenland Bergs 



The general drift of the icebergs from their source is sontlnvest- 

 ward along the coast to Cape Farewell, and the bergs may drift as 

 far nortliward around the latter as Godthaab, just as the pack ice 

 does. Those which remain out in the current along the continental 

 edge travel the fastest, but vary in speed with the week-to-week or 

 even the day-to-day pulsations of the current.^^ East Greenland bergs 

 gather in greatest numbers during the summer; off Cape Farewell 

 several hundred having been reported in sight of a ship at one time. 

 The pack ice tends to hold them olf the coast, but the effect of the 

 earth rotation being in the opjjosite direction keejis them from spread- 

 ing out to the North Atlantic. The van of berirs arrives at Capo 



n 



:(i 



<" Nielsen (1928, p. 226) states that the pohir current on the continental siiie of 

 Greenland Sea is 10 to 1-4 miles per day, while closer in to the coast it is only hal 

 great. Summer velocities are ijreater than winler ones. In autumn off .Viis^maiissal 

 sp(>ed of 5 to lU miles per day lias been recorded. 



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