Prof. T. C. Chamberlin. 
39 
ICEBERGS. Observations on icebergs were made as oppor- 
tunity was afforded, but were not a primary object of study. A 
few were noted on the east and south coast of Newfoundland in 
the latter days of June and the first of July. On the trip from St. 
Johns to the southern coast of Greenland, I saw only three small 
masses which might by a measure of courtesy be called icebergs. 
The number would no doubt have been greater had there been less 
interference from fog, though this was not unusually prevalent. 
When this scantiness is compared with the much larger amount 
of ice reported along the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland 
by observers on other vessels, and with the greater amount seen 
on our return voyage near that coast, there seems warrant for the 
inference that the berg-bearing current is comparatively narrow 
and hugs the mainland somewhat closely. This is concordant 
with the narrowness of the Greenland current observed by us off 
Cape Desolation, and with the fact that it is flexed to the north- 
ward at the mouth of Baffin Bay. A very broad, strong cur- 
rent could scarcely be influenced so markedly by a coastal feat- 
. ure of no greater magnitude. It seems to me not impossible that 
owing to the narrowness of this stream and the concentration of 
the bergs along the coast, where they are most liable to observa- 
tion, there has been some unconscious exaggeration of their 
numbers. Certainly my own observations, so far as they went, 
gave occasion for reconsidering the impression I had formed 
from previous reading as to the total quantity of icebergs sent 
forth from Greenland. The observations of a single trip, how- 
ever, are obviously to be accepted with caution. 
Comparatively few icebergs were observed in crossing the east 
Greenland current, nor were many seen along the southern por- 
tion of the Greenland coast. It was only as we approached 
Disco Island that we encountered them in striking numbers. 
There we passed a grand procession moving southwesterly from 
Disco Bay. But even there, the beauty and picturesqueness of 
the icebergs and the stateliness of their slow movement were 
more impressive than their numbers, as determined by cold, un- 
sentipiental count. Only thirty that could be classed as bergs 
were in sight even when we were in the midst of the procession. 
