6 



bergs, from April 10 to the end of this cruise. Surface temperatures 

 also show a definite increase in flow of the west branch of the Labrador 

 Current around Cape Race. (See fig. 38.) It will be remembered 

 that this is exactly the situation that existed throughout the 1937 

 season which caused so much obstruction to traffic on Canadian 

 tracks E and F. Of the seven bergs which drifted south of latitude 

 45° N., on the east side of the Banks, only one succeeded in drifting 

 south of the TaU. 



During the fifth cruise, AprU 19 to May 3, the ice situation remained 

 much the same as during the last patrol. Bergs continued to enter 

 the area in good numbers from the north with an increasing tendency 

 to be concentrated along the coast of the Avalon Peninsula, New- 

 foundland, and south of Cape Race. Ice reports during this cruise, 

 however, indicated on the whole less ice than during the last cruise. 

 Too much reliance could not be placed on this indication of ice condi- 

 tions for this particular period, for two reasons: (1) the traffic along 

 track E was routed south of most of the ice, and (2) the very high 

 percentage of low visibility conditions, including rain, fog, and snow, 

 over the ice-infested area. A review of weather conditions north of 

 latitude 44° N. on the Banks showed only 3 days during the cruise 

 when good visibility conditions could be counted on in this area. 

 Obviously this had some effect on the number of ice reports sent in 

 and the resultant information at hand. One thing is certain, how- 

 ever, that current conditions north of latitude 49° N., as mentioned 

 above, were such that bergs did not enter the eastern branch of the 

 Labrador Current. The resultant distribution was therefore a slow 

 spreading over the northern edge of the Banks south to latitude 

 45° N., with the main body of ice drifting southward in the western 

 branch of the Labrador Current along the eastern coast of New- 

 foundland through the guUey around Cape Race and to the south 

 and westward of that point. In support of these observations only 

 two bergs drifted south of latitude 43° N., that is south of the Tail 

 of the Banks, during this patrol and these were already known to be 

 south of latitude 45° N. when the patrol began. Only two bergs 

 had been reported in the normal cold current along the northeastern 

 slope of the Banks since April 1. The current situation, as indicated 

 by surface temperatures, and the long berg drifts as plotted on the 

 cruise chart (fig. 39), indicate little or no change since the early part 

 of April. Warm water was pressing in close to the shoal on the 

 east side of the Banks in latitude 45° N., but a slow, broad, cold 

 current continued south of this latitude around the Tail and west 

 to longitude 52°30' W., and the two bergs which drifted' south of 

 latitude 44° N. in this current faithfully followed this pattern. Only 

 one known berg remained south of the Tail, the other having melted 



