124 



tion of section W. The seasonal variation in the vokime of flow past 

 sections T, U, and W during the 1938 season is shown graphically 

 in figure 49. From this figure it will be seen that the pronounced 

 seasonal maximum noted in other years again occurred about the 

 beginning of May in 1938. 



In continuing the inquiry into the departures from average condi- 

 tions along the common boundary between the Labrador and Atlantic 

 Currents the course of the horizontal projection of the zero salinity 

 anomaly line in the axis of the intermediate anomaly maximum was. 

 investigated for each of the four surveys made dining the 1938 season. 

 On the first tliree surveys the line was entirely outside the limits of 

 the survey except the extra-southerly section of the third survey. 

 Only the fourth survey showed the line 

 within the area surveyed and then only 

 in the southeastern part of the area. This 

 indicates that Labrador Current water 

 was present in unusual abundance during 

 the 1938 season and the indication is 

 borne out by the above-mentioned fact 

 that the volume of flow of the Labrador 

 Current was greater than the 5-year 

 average at each of the sections investigated. 

 As noted previously, during the third 

 current survey a section was run south 

 from the Tail of the Grand Banks near 

 the 50th meridian to about latitude 39° N. 

 This section was intended to cross not 

 only the Labrador Current but also the 

 major part of the Gulf Stream. An 

 inspection of the surface current map for 

 that survey (fig. 47) indicates that the 

 section extended far enough south to- 

 mclude what was either a portion of the branch of the Gulf Stream, 

 that bends back toward Bermuda or part of a large vortex. An, 

 inspection of the temperature-salinity correlation at the various- 

 stations of this section when compared with earlier results from the 

 Sargasso and from near the Azores shows this section to have negative 

 salinity anomalies. This may be interpreted as indicating that this 

 section did not completely cross the Gulf Stream, or that diflPerenti 

 T-S relations existed at the different times, or that a difference in' 

 standardization in the salinity determinations existed. The previously, 

 mentioned predominance of water of negative salinity anomalies, and' 

 the standardization error which was discovered and corrected lead toi 

 the opinion that a combination of the last two interpretations is 



Figure 49. — Variation in the volume 

 of flow of the Labrador Current in 

 the Grand Banks region during the 



1938 season. 



