ever, at the month's end, in the attempt to open the passage to Montreal 

 several ships were working through the Strait and the Canadian Depart- 

 ment of Transport had commenced icebreaker service and the Ice Central 

 at Halifax, Nova Scotia, was providing ice forecasting bulletins. 



The first icebergs to approach the Grand Banks area were sighted by 

 the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Humboldt en route to Ocean Station Bravo 

 from Boston, Massachusetts. Five large bergs were reported between 

 latitudes 51 o 30' N. and 53° X. at about longitude 48°40' W. These bergs 

 were considerably offshore, free of the pack ice and not the same bergs 

 reported by Belle Isle Radio on 26 February. The fact that they were not 

 in the pack accounts for their first arrival. Prevailing westerly winds 

 throughout February had placed them eastward of the axis of the Labra- 

 dor Current where they experienced a continued eastward drift. This 

 group of few bergs, perhaps numbering less than ten, was not followed 

 by any replacements and by the middle of March all had melted in the 

 general area of 50° X. and 46° W. Thereafter bergs were from inside the 

 pack and in their southward approach to latitude 50° X T . were rarely east 

 of the 50th meridian. 



Prevailing westerly winds, nevertheless, had carried the ice edge and 

 accompanying main body of icebergs a greater than usual distance off- 

 shore. By 8-9 March the van of the berg movement was at about 50° X. 

 50° W. Large concentrations of bergs were still being reported at Belle 

 Isle but, as yet, almost none had been sighted along the Newfoundland 

 coast. 



The first bergs to drift across the 48th parallel did so on about 24 

 March. At this time there was a well defined limit of iceberg positions 

 which resembled a sharp wedge pointing southeastward and bounded by 

 a line from Belle Isle to 48° X. 48°30' W. to 53° X. 51° W. Within this 

 wedge were several hundred large icebergs and almost none without. 

 At the month's end this wedge was still in evidence but with bergs drifting 

 from the apex. Several continued to the southeast and east but most 

 curved southward and followed just seaward of the 100-fathom isobath 

 which corresponded to the axis of the Labrador Current (see tig. 44). 



Ice reported during March is shown on figure 10 and the drift of several 

 bergs in March is plotted on figure 15. The southernmost berg to be re- 

 ported in March was by the SS Statensingel (Xeth.) on 31 March at 

 40°5()' X. 47°15' W. Altogether it is estimated that 14 icebergs drifted 

 south across latitude 48° X. during the month. 



APRIL 



At the beginning of April sea ice over the Grand Banks was bounded by 

 a line from 48° X. 53° W. to 47°20' X. 47°30' W. to about 52° X. 52°30' 

 W. South of latitude 49° N. the ice was in fields, patches and strings of 

 small floes and blocks of concentrations varying between one-tenth and 

 five-tenths ice cover of the sea surface. North of latitude 49° X. the 



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