SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 149 



The chief high road for the Arctic ice to h)Aver hititudes is along 

 tljc Labrador and Newfonndhind shelves, and knowledge of the state 

 of sea ice and currents in these waters during the winter and early 

 s])ring is essential for corroborating the iceberg menace to the south- 

 ward in the Atlantic during later spring and summer. The Labra- 

 dor coast is seldom free of icebergs, an intermittent procession of 

 Avhich moves slowly southward. The ice. due to the effect of the rota- 

 tion of the earth, tends to hug the coast, working in, out of the axis of 

 tlie current, and much of it strands, sometimes permanently, but some- 

 times floats again and continues its southward journey. That hydro- 

 static forces, acting locally, are sufficient to maintain a southward 

 current here, along the continental shelf, independent of additional 

 momentum from the north, is clearly proven by the dynamic topo- 

 graphical maps. Iselin (1930), employing Bjerknes's formulae, calcu- 

 lated that the current off Nachvak Fjord w^as confined to a breadth 

 of 25 miles over the steepest part of the continental edge, moving at 

 20 miles per day but farther south off' Sandwich Bav, the stream was 

 broader 80 miles and slower. 8 miles per day. He observed further- 

 more that the bergs were characteristically strung out in lines more 

 or less parallel with this part of the coast, moving fastest out near 

 the continental edge, slower inshore. The Marion also found the 

 Labrador current clearly banded, with the belt over the continental 

 edge, about 20 miles wide. floAving off Xachvak at the rate of 20 miles 

 per day. (See fig. 96 p. 148.) 



Tracing the stream southward we find it approaching the coast 

 in mid-Labrador, where it slows to 14 miles per day, while 60 

 miles farther out, it flows at the rate of 11 miles per day. As avb 

 proceed southward to the offing of Hamilton Inlet we note that the 

 current widens to a breadth of 120 miles off Sandwich Bay, and 

 changes in velocity so that the outer edge progresses at the rate of 

 14 miles per day, while inshore it is only 3.7 miles per day. This 

 condition agrees well w^ith those found by the Chance (see Islein, 

 1930), wdio describes the entire breadth of the water over the coastal 

 shelf off Sandwich Bay as being in movement. (See our fig. 96.) 

 Farther south there is an indraught to the Strait of Belle Isle and a 

 band of the current on the continental edge off Newfoundland is 

 observed to flow at the rate of 13 miles per clay. The banding of 

 tlie current and its importance on th eiceberg drift is clearly shown 

 on Figures 95 and 96. From an examination of these figures a mean 

 velocity of 12 to 14 miles per day is indicated for the Labrador 

 current. 



The undulating course of the stream lines on Figure 95 emphasizes 

 (that the Labrador current does not flow straightaway soutliAvard, 

 'and the well-marked inshore swirl there indicated between parallels 

 o5 and 57, where the shelf shows its only major embayment, is cer- 

 tainly more than a mere coincidence but almost certainly a prevailing 

 characteristic of the current and one which normally deflects a num- 

 ber of icebergs inward to the coast where they become trapped at this 

 place. Years characterized b}' fcAv icebergs south of Newfoundland 

 will record an abundance of icebergs in this section of Labrador. 



In fact, it is knowm that more bergs strand in this locality than at 

 any other point along the Labrador shelf, and the summer of 1928 

 was an excellent time to reveal such behavior. This appears clearly 

 from the distribution of bergs along the coast plotted from the 



