12 



JUNE AND JULY 1937 



As was seen in the last days of May there was a definite lessening 

 of the number of bergs in the area. This continued until June 1 1 when 

 there remained only 18 bergs south of latitude 49° N., all but three of 

 which were in vicinity of Cape Race and extending westward along 

 track F, in widely scattered positions to longitude 56° W. The bergs 

 reported along the north and northeastern edge of the Grand Banks 

 had showed no tendency to move southward but drifted slowly east- 

 ward melting in the rapidly warming surface water. 



The International Ice Patrol was discontinued for the season on 

 June 11, but the United States Coast Guard patrol boat General 

 Greene, the oceanographic vessel of the Ice Patrol Force, made an 

 oceanographic cruise in the North Atlantic from June 19 to July 25, 

 1937. During this period the ice situation was as follows: reports 

 from the Cape Race area and along the Newfomidland east coast 

 continued during the latter part of June and then diminished rapidly 

 imtil a cessation of ice reports from this region on July 6 showed that 

 the bergs there had at last disintegrated and no more were moving in 

 to take their place; the reports from the Belle Isle area continued to 

 show, throughout the period, numerous bergs in scattered positions 

 extendmg eastward from Belle Isle along the track to longitude 50° W., 

 and west of Belle Isle, in the straits, to Point Amour, which is a normal 

 situation and should continue for some time; about July 9, bergs began 

 to be reported about 180 miles northeast of Cape Race, just outside 

 the 100 fathom curve, and subsequent reports from July 12 to 22 

 showed these bergs moving southward in that area, which had been 

 clear of bergs since June 11. It is estimated 15 bergs drifted south of 

 latitude 48° N., during this period, 14 in June and 1 in July. The 

 distribution of the bergs for these months is graphically shown on the 

 June and July Ice Charts. (See figs. 7 and 8.) 



SUMMARY 



Evidence seems to show that the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay 

 basins were swept practically clear of ice during the summers of 1935 

 and 1936. The Ice Patrol's observations during June 1936 m the 

 vicinity of Cape Farewell, Greenland, found only a few scattered 

 pieces of field ice and remarkably few bergs. From reports obtained 

 in the late fall and early winter of 1936 along the Laborador coast, 

 at least as far north as Hopedale, there was a singular absence of 

 bergs in an}^ numbers and no field ice at all. (See Ice Conditions, 

 1936, Bulletin No. 26, Washington, 1937.) The salient points of the 

 season were: (1) The early appearance (January 14) and extremely 

 wide distribution of bergs in Januarv and (2) the concentration of 



