SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 



137 



A major factor slowin<r the soiitlnvard progress of iceber<js is the 

 deeply indented, broken character of the North American coast line 

 fiom Ellesmere Land to NewfoundLand. In the distance from Cape 

 York to Cape Race the continnit}- of the shore line is interrupted 

 ]n five places; and while three of these interruptions are so far 

 north they have little effect on the icebero; stream, the 50-mile breach 

 at Hudson Strait and the 15-mile openin<>; at Belle Isle have an 

 important effect. The c(miplex movements of the water masses 

 athwart the ber<j; stream, as indicated by the irregular courses of 

 the isotherms and isohalines of the Manon.s survey, extending far out 

 in the Labrador Sea. mark Hudson Strait as the source of much turbu- 

 lence. The great indentation in Newfoundland which stretches from 

 Ca]5e Bauld to Cape St. Francis is a natural cachment for bergs, and 



Icebergs Moving Out Into Baffin Bay 



Figure 90. — Icebergs discharged from the Great and Little Kara.iak Glaciers drift 

 westward through Unianak Fjord into Baffin Bay. Great Karajak, one of the most 

 productive glaciers in West Greenland, is estimated to discharge 1,200 sizable ice- 

 bergs annually. The little native settlement of Umanak lies in the foreground. 

 (I'hotograph by A. Bertlesen.) 



hundreds of other small coastal configurations also catch the wan- 

 dering bergs. Lady Franklin Island, a small rocky eminence lying 

 about 30 miles northeast of Frobisher Bay on the southeastern coast 

 of Baffin Land, forms a spur in the side of the ice stream. During 

 certain parts of the year the northern side of the island and the long 

 thill line of reefs to shore catch hundreds and hundreds of icebergs. 

 Had Labrador and Newfoundland a bold, clear coast line or one 

 similar to that of east Greenland, the annual supply of bergs to 

 the North Atlantic would be manyfold greater. 



The fields of pack ice which for four months of the year obscure 

 all coastal contours also greatly modify the effect of the shore lino 

 on the berg drift. At a normal rate of 10 miles per day for the cold 

 current, a band of water 1.200 miles in length will pass a given 

 point during this 4-month period. Normally a total of about 400 



