Only in 1949 and 1952 was the minimum observed temperature 

 at the South Wolf Island section colder than that at the Bonavista 

 triangle. Except for 1956 the corresponding salinities at the South 

 Wolf Island section were fresher than at the Bonavista triangle. 

 The direction of the salinity difference is not surprising since the 

 average depth of the minimum temperature was about 26 meters 

 greater at the Bonavista triangle than at the South Wolf Island 

 section. The previously offered explanation of colder water at 

 the Bonavista triangle being brought about by winter time con- 

 centration through the removal of water by freezing is not com- 

 pletely satisfactory and while it no doubt plays an important 

 part in producing the temperatures and salinities found at the 

 Bonavista triangle in the summertime, it seems probable that the 

 T-S characteristics of the water found off South Wolf Island in 

 summer are decidedly affected by the discharge of fresh water 

 from Hamilton Inlet. Nutt and Coachman 2 have estimated that 

 the winter's precipitation at Hebron Fjord, Labrador is released 

 into the Fjord between May 15 and July 15. 



These same authors found a trend toward lower salinity and 

 a slight warming from measurements made in late July and early 

 August in 1949, 1952, and 1954 over which span the total freshen- 

 ing amounted to 0.34°/ O o. While the foregoing table shows salinity 

 fluctuations of about the same range a T-S plot of the nine annual 

 points in chronological sequence does not show any such pro- 

 nounced trend either at South Wolf Island or at the Bonavista 

 triangle. Remembering that these are points of minimum observed 

 temperature and that the temperature minimum over the con- 

 tinental shelf is probably the least disturbed of any part of the 

 Labrador Current during the warmer part of the year by onshore 

 or offshore winds, they may reasonably be taken as representative 

 of the inshore frigid component of the Labrador Current. Because 

 of the various depths of the different observations, however, scaled 



2 The Oceanography of Hebron Fjord, Labrador — Nutt, David C. and Lawrence K. Coach' 

 man. J. Fish. Res. Bd. Canada, vol. 13 no. 5; 1956. 



51 



