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 DRIFT ICE AND CURRENTS 
 
 NORTH ATLANTIC 
 
 WITH A CHART SHOWING THE OBSERVED POSITIONS OF THE ICE 
 AT VARIOUS TIMES. 
 
 v*^^'* 
 y^^^ 
 
 W. C. REDFIELD. 
 
 EXTRACTED FROM THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, VOL. XLVIII. 
 
 NEW HAVEN: 
 
 PniNTEl) HY li. L. HAMLEN. 
 
 1845. 
 
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 DRIFT ICE AND CURRENTS 
 
 NORTH ATLANTIC* 
 
 Of the various dangers which beset the path of the mariner, 
 perhaps there are none which excite to more vigilance than the 
 known or expected proximity of ice. In some frequented por- 
 tions of the Atlantic Ocean the ice appears almost every year, in 
 the various forms of field ice, floes and massive ice-islands, drift- 
 ed from the arctic regions by the constant action of the polar cur- 
 rents. These ice-bearing currents, in flowing towards the south, 
 must necessarily incline towards the western limits of the ocean, 
 owing to the increased velocity of the diurnal rotation of ,the 
 earth's surface as we depart from the poles ; a law well under- 
 stood as regards the currents of air which form the trade winds. 
 Hence it is that on and near the Banks of Newfoundland these 
 ice-currents are found to cross the usual track of vessels bound 
 from the ports of Europe to northern America. 
 
 The quantity of ice which appears on this route of navigation 
 in different years, is exceedingly various. It is sometimes seen 
 as early in the year as January, and seldom later than the month 
 of August. From March to July is its most common season. It 
 is found most frequently to the west of longitude 44°, and to the 
 eastward of longitude 52° ; but icebergs are sometimes met with 
 as far eastward as longitude 40°, and in some rare cases, even 
 still further towards Europe. 
 
 Experience has shown that the proximity of ice is far less 
 hazardous than rocks and shoals ; and this floating danger would 
 be still less formidable were it not for the fogs and mists which it 
 often causes. The thermometer has been often held up as aff"ord- 
 ing sure indications of an approach to ice, by the reduction of 
 temperature shown both in the air and water, and these indica- 
 tions are important and should by no means be neglected. But 
 there may be many cases of approach to ice where a reliance 
 upon the thermometer alone could not afford security. 
 
 On the ice chart, which is annexed, we have indicated numer- 
 ous positions in which ice has been seen and reported on the 
 
 * From the forthcoming " Memoir" of Messrs. E. & G. W. Blunt on the Dan- 
 gers and Ice of the North Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 I 
 
L 
 
 4 Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 
 
 common route of navigation, chiefly since 1832. This will serve 
 to show the region where it is most often encountered. 
 
 Although little or no ice be seen in one passage, or even in 
 many times crossing the Atlantic, yet it has been frequently met 
 in such quantities as seemed to indicate a vast, or indefinite ex- 
 tension of the ice-fields, towards the polar seas. And from the 
 inexhaustibility of the sources of supply, and the permanent 
 character of the polar currents, we may infer that there is no 
 spot of ocean within the influence of these currents which has 
 not, at some time, been covered with ice. 
 
 A recital of the various authorities and marine reports from 
 which our ice-chart has been compiled, might prove more tedious 
 than useful. The following, however, selected from many others, 
 may serve as examples of the cases in which the ice has been 
 noticed by navigators. 
 
 Ship Eli Whitney, Harding, April 7, 1836, sea account : wind 
 S. S. W. and thick fog ; ordered the temperature of the water to 
 be tried every half hour ; at 6 p. m. water 36*^ ; passed a small 
 ice-island ; ship going west all night three knots ; 6 a. m, water 
 34°, at 8 A. M. water 31^*^, passed considerable quantities of ice. 
 At 10 A. M. saw a large field of ice ahead, which extended to 
 the north and south as far as the eye could reach ; entered it in 
 expectation of finding an opening to westward. After proceed- 
 ing a cable's length, wore round and stood out as we went in, 
 and then hauled the ship on the wind to the S. E. Longitude 
 by account, 47° OG' W., latitude by account, 44° AV N. — April 
 
 8, wind S. S. W., stood to the S. E. till 5 a. m. ; water 46°; 
 tacked ship to the westward. At noon water 44°, latitude by 
 observation, 44° 35', longitude by chronometer, 46° 56'. — April 
 
 9, wind S. S. W. and foggy. At 4 p. m. water 34° ; wore ship 
 to the S. E. At midnight water 44° ; tacked ship to the west- 
 ward. At 8 A. M. wind shifted N. W. and cleared off" the fog ; 
 three large islands of ice in sight ; water 44° ; latitude by ob- 
 servation, 44° 17' N., longitude by chronometer, 47° 50' W. — 
 April 10, wind N. W. ; passed six large islands ; water in vicin- 
 ity of the ice 40°, latitude by observation, 43° 09', longitude by 
 chronometer, 48° 55'. — April 11, passed four large islands of ice 
 this day ; at 8 a. m. sounded and found bottom with 42 fathoms ; 
 water 35° ; latitude at noon by observation, 43° ; longitude by 
 chronometer, 50° 36' W. 
 
Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 5 
 
 Ship Samuel Wright, Allen, March 18, 1S3-. Latitude 43^, 
 longitude 48° 43'. At 3 p. m. very foggy, came nearly in con- 
 tact with a very large island of ice, about 150 feet high and one 
 mile in length ; the weather extremely cold, kept the ship under 
 easy sail. At 5 p. m. fell in with an English brig, and were in- 
 formed we were standing for more ice, and that she had been for 
 five days surrounded with it, extending from latitude 45*^ to 43°, 
 and found no opening to the westward. Kept company during 
 the night, and fell in. with more ice ; in the morning no ice in 
 sight. 
 
 Ship Fama, Winsor, March 183-, ,in latitude 44° 30', longitude 
 48°, fell in with an immense field of ice ; tacked ship to the east- 
 ward and stood off and on two days. Wind changed to N. E., 
 and run 45 miles S. W. and passed the point of ice in latitude 
 43° 25', longiiude 48° 50'. 
 
 The British Tar, Hanby, left the Gulf of St. Lawrence 29th 
 June, and passed through the Straits of Belle Isle. On the 3d 
 of July, about 15 miles eastward of Belle Isle, found the passage 
 quite blocked up with very heavy fields of ice, which obliged us 
 to put back to an anchorage. On the 6th again made the ice, 
 and found it more open : passed through about seventy miles of 
 it. On the eastern edge, fell in with nine brigs, a ship, and a 
 barque, standing ofi" and on, waiting for a passage into the straits. 
 The icebergs were very numerous and immensely large, as far to 
 the eastward as longitude 48°. 
 
 Ship Oneida, Funk, May 4th, 1841, latitude 43° 40', longi- 
 tude 50°, passed a number of large icebergs ; saw ice as far 
 west as longitude 53°. 
 
 The brig Anne, of Poole, William Dayment, master, sailed 
 from Greenspond, Newfoundland, [N. E. coast,] 19th of January, 
 1821, and in the evening encountered several floating islands of 
 ice. On the following morning, at sunrise, the ship was so com- 
 pletely enveloped in ice that there appeared no means of escape, 
 even from the tops of the masts. The ice, in its whole extent, 
 rose about fourteen feet above the surface of the water ; it drifted 
 towards the southeast, and bore the ship along with it twenty 
 nine successive days. On the 17th of February, Capt. D. being 
 three hundred miles east of Cape Race,* in latitude 44° 37' 
 
 * That this position was ascertained by chronometer appears doubtful. 
 
6 Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic, 
 
 north, perceived an opening to the southeast, and succeeded in 
 disengaging himself. From the 29th of January to the 3d of 
 February, the brig only made four miles a day ; and during the 
 twenty nine days this navigation lasted, he descried near one 
 hundred very extensive mountains of compact ice. 
 
 Ship Isabella, Meredith, struck an iceberg on 9th May, 1841, 
 in latitude 42° 2', longitude 43° 45'. The iceberg broke through 
 the bows, and caused the ship to fill with water so fast that the 
 crew had barely time to take to the boats, without water, provi- 
 sions or clothing : the ship immediately went down, or disap- 
 peared in the fog. The crew continued in the boat until the 
 afternoon of the 11th, when they were picked up by the Kings- 
 ton, of Hull, bound to Pictou. 
 
 Ship Lowell, on the 10th of March, 1842, at 9 a. m., latitude 
 44° 15', longitude 48° 30', came in contact with a field of ice ; 
 was at that time steering W. N. W., with the wind. Tacked 
 and stood to the eastward two hours, when she again tacked to 
 the westward. At 2 a. m. again fell in with the ice. Continued 
 beating to the southward, and falling in with the ice on the west 
 tack till March 13th. Passed the southern extremity of the field 
 in latitude 42°, longitude 49° 15', having seen it extending in a 
 N. N. E. and S. S. W. direction, nearly 150 miles. 
 
 A letter from Capt. Hosken, of the steamship Great Western, 
 says : " April 18th, 1841, the ship steering west, at 6 p. m,, first 
 saw one iceberg on the starboard bow, at 7 30 passed it ; at that 
 time four or five others in sight ; at 9 15 p. m. passed several 
 small pieces of ice — slowed the engines. In a few minutes after, 
 the ship was surrounded with light field ice, which appeared 
 similar to a field I ran through on the 11th of February, 1839. 
 This induced me to go slowly, with the hope of getting through, 
 as I had done on that occasion ; but by 9 30 finding it closely 
 packed, and much thicker, prudence dictated our escape by the 
 same channel we had entered. I then stopped and attempted to 
 get the ship's head to the eastward, by turning ahead and astern 
 until there was room for her to come round ; in the course of this 
 operation the ship had occasionally (at least) two streaks heel 
 given by either v/heel passing over large masses of ice. At 
 10 15, succeeded in getting the ship's head to the eastward, and 
 by 11 p. M. entirely clear. From that time went slowly, passing 
 several icebergs j the night at times very clear, the aurora bo- 
 
Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 7 
 
 realis very bright. At 3 30 a. m. of the 19th, again got embayed 
 in the ice ; stopped, hauled short round on our keel, and steered 
 out E. by S., coasting the ice for five or six miles. At 4 20 
 kept her to the westward, running through innumerable icebergs 
 until 8 30, when we passed the last iceberg and field of ice." 
 
 '' When the sun arose the ice was visible as far as the eye 
 could reach, in an unbroken line from N. E. by E., by the north- 
 ward to N. W. by W. ; at the same time, icebergs innumerable 
 in every direction, forming one of the most magnificent sights I 
 ever beheld." 
 
 " The first iceberg we saw was ip latitude 43°, longitude 48° 
 30' ; and the last in latitude 42° 20', longitude 50°. I am quite 
 sure there was an unbroken field of that extent ; and from what 
 I heard from Capt. Bailey, of the packet ship South America, I 
 have no doubt the field ice extended, with very little break, to 
 latitude 40° 30', where Capt. B. fell in with it on the morning 
 of the 18th. Several other ships also fell in with it in the same 
 longitude, and were completely stopped, giving them an oppor- 
 tunity of killing seals, which were on it in great numbers. Some 
 of the icebergs I estimate at little, if at all less than a mile long, 
 and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet high. This 
 field of ice was in large masses, some of them not less than 
 twenty feet square by six feet thick or more." 
 
 " The temperature of the water, when within two miles of 
 the first iceberg seen, fell suddenly from 50° to 36° ; air 40° to 
 36°. When in the ice, the water was 25°, air 28° ; during the 
 remainder of the night and following morning the water was not 
 higher than 30° nor the air higher than 32°. Immediately after 
 passing the last ice the water became 36° and the air 42°." 
 
 Brig Cynosure, on the 23d, 24th, and 25th of July, 1842, lati- 
 tude 42°, longitude 49° 30', saw large icebergs, and was two 
 days among the ice. Saw an island of ice that was estimated 
 to be two hundred feet above the water, and saw several other 
 islands in longitude 54°. 
 
 Ship England, Bartlett, April, 1842, latitude 41° 29', longi- 
 tude 49°, saw a large number of icebergs. 
 
 Brig Byron, Pierson, April, 1842, latitude 41° 18', longitude 
 50°, saw four large islands of ice, one about 200 feet high and 
 three miles long. Saw it 30 miles off. 
 
8 Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 
 
 British brig Peace, Robson, May 9th, 1844, made the ice in 
 latitude 46° 52', longitude 46° 30', being bound to the Gulf of 
 St. Lawrence, and was soon so completely imbedded in a large 
 field of fragments that escape was impossible. She remained 
 fast until the 13th, without injury, when in the night a gale of 
 wind set in, crowding the large cakes down fast upon the sides 
 and bulwarks of the v^essel, which, from being in ballast, was 
 soon stove in by the immense weight. On the 14th the small 
 boats were got out and stocked with provisions, &c., and in the 
 night of the same day the brig was abandoned. Captain R. 
 with crew and boats remained upon the ice until the 18th, being 
 unable to get into clear water, and on that day were taken off, in 
 latitude 46° 50', longitude 45° 42', by the ship Copernicus, after 
 much suffering. 
 
 Ship Burgundy, Wotton, in May, 1844, from the latitude 45° 
 30', longitude 45°, to latitude 43° 30', longitude 48°, was com- 
 pletely surrounded by icebergs and drift ice ; lay to four nights, 
 owing to the density of the fog ; saw an iceberg two miles in 
 length ; no ice seen on the Banks. 
 
 Ship Virginia, Allen, latter part of January, 1844, was 34 hours 
 fast in the ice. On the Banks, in a hurricane, lost foresail and 
 main-topsail — saw large quantities of ice. 
 
 Ship Swanton, Heath, from 18th to 21st July, 1842, experi- 
 enced thick foggy weather, latitude 43° and longitude 49° to 
 54°, passed upwards of 300 icebergs, some of them very large ; 
 came near being wrecked on them, having run between two 
 large islands in the night, which nearly rubbed the ship on each 
 side before we discovered them, notwithstanding all hands were 
 upon the lookout. 
 
 Captain William Wier, bound eastward, gave the following ac- 
 count. On the 9th of March, 1787, latitude 42° N., longitude 
 55^ 40' W., was called by the mate to see a large ridge of 
 breakers: altered my course from E. S. E. to S., the appearance 
 of breakers being N. N. E., and trending from E. N. E. to W. S. 
 W. March 11th, latitude 43° 34', found myself in the midst of 
 a large body of ice, trending E. N. E. and W. S. W. ; soon got 
 through. March 13th, latitude 44° 03', at 8 a. m., made a large 
 body of ice, extending beyond view from mast-head, and trend- 
 ing N. E. by E. and S. W. by W. At 10 p. m., met a larger 
 body of ice, which entirely stopped the ship's way. On the morn- 
 
Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 9 
 
 ing of the 14th, found myself enclosed, and conld see no water 
 from mast-head, except one small hole, into which 1 pressed the 
 ship ; in 23 fathoms water on the Grand Bank. In this dismal 
 situation lay with my sails hauled up, till 21st March, seeing no 
 sea from main top-gallant-mast head. On the 17th went on the 
 ice to take a view of an island of ice which bore from us W. S. 
 W. We set out at 12 o'clock, and travelled one hour and thirty 
 five minutes before we reached it. We found it aground in 25 
 fathoms, the main body passing fast by it, setting S. E. two and 
 a half miles an hour, as I judged. On our return, having been 
 absent three hours, the ice island bore W. N. W., having altered 
 four points. 
 
 On the first day of January, 1844, Captain Burroughs, in the 
 ship Sully, met with an iceberg in the Atlantic, in latitude 45°, 
 longitude 48°. This is earlier in the winter than any other case 
 which we have met with. Captain B. states that he had met 
 with ice near this position on the first of February, on a former 
 voyage. 
 
 In September, 1822, Captain Couthouy saw an iceberg aground 
 on the eastern edge of the Grand Bank, in latitude 43° 18^, lon- 
 gitude 48° 30'. Sounding three miles inside of it, the depth was 
 found to be 105 fathoms. In the month of August, 1827, the 
 same observer, while crossing the Banks in latitude 46° 30', lon- 
 gitude 48° W., passed within less than a mile of a large iceberg 
 which was stranded in between 80 and 90 fathoms water. He 
 was so near as to perceive, distinctly, large fragments of rock and 
 quantities of earthy matter imbedded in the sides of the iceberg, 
 and to see, from the fore yards, that the water for at least a quarter 
 of a mile round it was full of mud, stirred up from the bottom by 
 the violent rolling and crushing of the mass. 
 
 On the 27th of April, 1829, Captain Couthouy passed, in lati- 
 tude 36° 10' N., longitude 39° W., [probably south of the Gulf 
 Stream,] an iceberg, estimated to be a quarter of a mile long, and 
 from SO to 100 feet high. It was much wasted in its upper por- 
 tion, which was worn and broken into the most fanciful shapes. 
 In 1831, at daylight of the 17th of August, latitude 36° 20' N., 
 longitude 67° 45' W,, upon the southern edge of the Gulf Stream, 
 he fell in with several small icebergs, in such proximity to each 
 other as to leave little doubt of their being fragments of a large 
 one, which, weakened by the high temperature of the surround- 
 
10 Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 
 
 ing water, had fallen asunder during a strong gale which had 
 prevailed from the southeast.* 
 
 Ship St. James, Meyer, July 12, 1844, latitude 44°, longitude 
 47° 12', passed 12 large icebergs ; July 20, passed 25 do. ; and 
 July 21, passed 30 do; latitude 43° 50', longitude 52° 26', saw 
 the last of it. 
 
 John L. Hayes, Esq., in the Boston Journal of Natural His- 
 tory, states that Capt. Crocker, of New Bedford, measured with 
 his sextant an iceberg which was aground on the Bank of New- 
 foundland, and found it to be half a mile long and two hundred 
 and forty four feet high. Also, that Capt. Matthew Luce, of New 
 Bedford, saw an ice-island of one hundred feet in height, aground 
 in forty eight fathoms, on the Bank, and that the fishing vessels 
 had sailed around it for thirty days. 
 
 Ship Switzerland, Knight, May 5th, 1844, in latitude 47° N., 
 longitude 46° W., at 5 a. m. met with a perfectly solid field of 
 ice, and the wind being N. E. hauled out to S. E. After coast- 
 ing the ice forty miles, found it turned to E., and that the ship 
 was embayed. Tacked to N., and after four tacks of one hour 
 each, the wind hauled to S. W. ; steered east a short distance 
 from the ice. Afterwards turned to the south, and the wind 
 hauling to the westward, steered S. S. W. for forty miles more, 
 when the ice became broken, and very soon was entirely, clear 
 of it, having sailed eighty miles along an unbroken coast of ice, 
 exactly in appearance like low land covered with snow. The 
 wind continuing to the westward, saw more or less ice for three 
 following days, but none south of latitude 44° 43', nor west of 
 longitude 49°. 
 
 Ship Formosa, Crawford, June 18th, 1842, latitude 38° 40', 
 longitude 47° 20', saw an iceberg 100 feet high and 170 feet 
 long. 
 
 On the passage out in the Acadia, on the 16th of May, in lat- 
 itude 46°, longitude 47°, there were seen about 100 icebergs, 
 some of them of large size, and one from 400 to 500 feet high, 
 bearing so strong a resemblance to St. Paul's, that it was at once 
 christened after that celebrated cathedral. The dome was per- 
 fect, and it required no extraordinary stretch of imagination to 
 
 supply the turrets, pinnacles, and other parts of the building. 
 
 % 
 
 * See this Journal, Vol. xLiii, 1842. 
 
niART 
 IMul.llMis iIk- Ur 
 ,j.r ohenrJ inl/ir 
 
 Noirrii .vi"i,ANT 
 
 lix-WC RctUield 
 184+. 
 
 H 
 
 N-.'.'-S''& 
 
Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 11 
 
 On the homeward passage of the Acadia, on the 6th of June, the 
 same object was seen, and the immediate exclamation on board 
 was, " There's our old friend, St. Paul's." In the interim be- 
 tween the two views, the iceberg had drifted about seventy 
 miles.* 
 
 An immense ice-island was seen on the 10th July, 1841, in lat- 
 itude 43° 54', longitude 58° 12', by Captain ^Ricker, of the 
 Apollo, at Boston. He reports that his thermometer fell when 
 near it forty degrees. 
 
 It may be proper to state here, that many ice observations have 
 been placed on the chart without a reference to the date or the 
 vessel which reported them, and the want of room for the refer- 
 ences has rendered this in a degree unavoidable. In compiling 
 the chart, one hundred and fifty seven separate reports have been 
 consulted, the general character of which may be estimated by 
 the foregoing examples. Many other accounts might have been 
 obtained, but it is believed that these are sufficient for an approx- 
 imate estimate of the course and positions of the ice in various 
 seasons, so far as relates to the routes of vessels coming from Eu- 
 ropean ports. 
 
 On the Westerly tendencies of the Polar Ice-currents, and their 
 Influence on the Gulf Stream. 
 
 In further noticing the westerly and southerly progress of the 
 cold currents from the arctic regions, we avail ourselves of the 
 researches of Rennell, who states that " a current from Green- 
 land and the Arctic Sea joins the Gulf Stream on the east of the 
 Grand Bank of Newfoundland, somewhere about latitude 44°, 
 and between the meridians of 44° and 47°." In the month of 
 May its direction has been found to be between S. W. by S. and 
 S., and its temperature [apart from the ice] 43° to 47° of Fah- 
 renheit. The temperature taken not far to the eastward of it 
 was 62° to 63°, and an easterly current of 30 miles [per day] 
 of the same water (i. e. gulf water,) was found at a distance from 
 the eastern edge of the S. W. by S. cold stream. This is, doubt- 
 less, the current that brings down the ice from Greenland, &c., 
 to the east of the bank of Newfoundland, and ice has been seen 
 in the line of this very current, by different persons in different 
 
 * English paper. 
 
 2 
 
12 Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 
 
 years. The navigators to Newfoundland and New England 
 place the junction of these currents in about latitude 41°, lon- 
 gitude 49°, which shows how erroneous their ideas are on this 
 subject." 
 
 Rennell likewise states that " there is also a smaller [?] current 
 that passes down the coast of Labrador, and eastern side of New- 
 foundland, and carries ice in sight of the coast." He also says, 
 that " it appears both from his own and other people's observa- 
 tion, that two distinct streams of ice exist ; one on the east of 
 the Bank, the other ranging along the coasts of Labrador and 
 Newfoundland ; and then obliquely across the Bank in a S. by 
 E. direction ; whilst that from Greenland, &c., runs between S. 
 by W. and S. S. W. This last current appears to fall into the 
 Gulf Stream about the latitude of 43° or 44° ; and between the 
 meridians of 45° and 50° W. The ice is, of course, carried into 
 the Gulf Stream, where, from the warmth of its temperature, it 
 must rapidly dissolve."* Rennell also states that many ice islands 
 are found to the westward of the above, " in the line of the route 
 from Halifax," and that they are often seen in the Strait of Belle 
 Isle." We quote also the following : 
 
 " An experienced commander, long in the Newfoundland trade, 
 has said that the branch current which appears to come from 
 Hudson's Bay, always sets to the south-westward (perhaps S. S. 
 W.,) off the eastern coast of Newfoundland: sometimes at the 
 rate of two miles an hour ; its strength, however, varying with 
 the direction and force of the wind. Passing down the eastern 
 coast of Newfoundland, it turns about Cape Race, and sets thence 
 along the south side of the island, until it meets with the current 
 from the St. Lawrence, [through the Strait of Belle Isle,] a little 
 to the westward of St. Pierre and Miquelon Islands. 
 
 * I have not sufficient knowledge of that portion of the Greenland current 
 which lies north of the Banks, to enable me to determine if its course from the 
 coast of Greenland be directly towards the Flemish Cap and the eastern side of 
 the Grand Bank, or whether it may not fall in with the Labrador current in lon- 
 gitude 48° to 51° off the Strait of Belle Isle, or the southern coast of Labrador, run- 
 ning from thence southeasterly parallel to the coast of Newfoundland and outside 
 of the Labrador current, carrying with it the belt or stream of ice which it brings 
 from the Greenland seas. It is hoped that this point may be satisfactorily deter- 
 mined, and in the mean while I have ventured to indicate on the ice-chart, hypo- 
 thetically, the more direct route to the eastern ice region, as being that of the Green- 
 land current. W. C. R. 
 
Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 13 
 
 " When the Virgin Rocks, lying about 80 miles W. by S. from ^ )( ^ 
 Cape Race, were surveyed in July, 1829, the current ^et over 
 them to the W. S. W. at the rate of one mile an hour. 
 
 "It is probable that this westerly current impinges on the 
 easterly one, and continues its course, with diminishing velocity, 
 towards Breton Island, where it blends with that branch of the 
 St. Lawrence stream which sets to the S. W. between Sable Isl- 
 and and Nova Scotia. 
 
 " The sea between the Grand Bank of Newfoundland and the 
 Banks of Nova Scotia is distinguished by its drifts of cold water, 
 varying with the wind and seasons."* 
 
 In further proof of the westwardly pressure of the polar current 
 upon the American coast, we may state, on the authority of 
 Captain Bayfield, the able officer who surveyed the Gulf and 
 River of St. Lawrence, that " in spring the entrance and east- 
 ern parts of the Gulf are frequently covered with ice, and ves- 
 sels are sometimes beset for many days ;" and that " the reality 
 of a current inwards through the Strait of Belle Isle, is con- 
 firmed by the presence of icebergs, which it transports into the 
 Gulf in summer, against the prevailing S. W. winds, frequently 
 carrying them as far as Mecatina, and sometimes even to the 
 neighborhood of the east point of Anticosti." This last position 
 is nearly 300 miles from the entrance of the strait, and almost 
 half way to Quebec. 
 
 But even stronger proof of this inward pressure of the cold 
 current into the gulf and estuary of St. Lawrence is found in the 
 icy temperature of its deeper waters during the summer. Thus, 
 in the middle of the estuary, ofi" Matan, and more than 200 miles 
 above the east point of Anticosti, on the 8th of July, Dr. Kelly 
 found the temperature of the surface water 60^, — at 30 fathoms 
 35°, — at 50 fathoms 34°: the whole depth at that point being 
 132 fathoms. A subsequent trial in this portion of the river 
 showed the surface water at 57°, — at half a fathom depth 44°, — 
 5 fathoms 40°,— 10 fathoms 38°,— 100 fathoms 35°. At Ta- 
 dousac, about half way to Quebec from the place of the last ob- 
 servation. Dr. Kelly found the temperature, in September, as low 
 as 36°, after an easterly gale, which mingles the shallow stream 
 of the surface with the deeper waters. Numerous other obser- 
 
 * Purely, in Rennell. 
 
14 Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 
 
 vations made at different times and places, during the survey, 
 confirmed these results. Hence it appears that the drainage 
 waters received by the rivers were discharged by means of the 
 surface current, which swept over the cold subjacent waters that 
 were brought in by the polar current and the flood tide. These 
 facts should be remembered in viewing the relations of the polar 
 currents to the Gulf Stream. 
 
 In relation to the southern outlet of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
 it has been common for navigators and others greatly to overrate 
 the proper river current of the St. Lawrence, in its extension 
 southward of Breton Island and Nova Scotia. This fresh-water 
 current, when compared with the branch of the polar current 
 which joins it through the Strait of Belle Isle, is but of insignifi- 
 cant volume ; and the current through this strait, in its turn, is 
 but an ocean rill, when compared with the great volume and 
 force of the cold currents which pass to the eastward and south- 
 ward of Newfoundland. 
 
 It appears that Rennell was embarrassed in his investigation 
 of the polar currents of this region, by admitting the assumption 
 that a portion of the cold water, eastward of Newfoundland, was 
 caused by the Bank itself. This hypothesis had been sanctioned 
 by distinguished writers, but the observations and facts on which 
 it was founded can now be satisfactorily explained by the admit- 
 ted influence of cold currents, either superficial or sub-aqueous. 
 He appears, also, to have viewed the Gulf Stream as opposing a 
 direct obstacle to the further passage of the polar currents, but it 
 appears to us, that the streams of existing aqueous currents are 
 found intersecting each other, much in the same manner as they 
 would pass through quiet waters, and that they quietly impose or 
 imbed upon each other like as stratified currents of air, or lateral 
 currents from the forks of rivers, are found to accommodate each 
 other, in their respective courses. In these river cases, as apart 
 from the extraneous deflection by the shores, while the original 
 momentum of each stream continues, one of these may be borne 
 away from its original course, and thus be resolved to a new or 
 modified direction by the further progress of the current in which 
 it is imbedded; but in such cases, a diversion of the course of 
 the lower current does not usually take place. 
 
 In the case of ocean ice-currents which intersect a surface 
 cross current, while the common surface ice conforms more or 
 
Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 15 
 
 less nearly to the new direction of the current on which it floats, 
 the deeply immersed ice masses, having probably their greatest 
 bulk immersed in the lower or deeper current, are thus resolved, 
 by a real conflict of impelling forces, into a still difl'erent course, 
 which conforms more or less nearly to that of the lower or sub- 
 aqueous stream, according to the respective areas exposed to the 
 action of the two currents, and their respective velocities. The 
 geographical course of the body of the Gulf Stream, according to 
 our best information, commonly touches the southern point of the 
 Grand Bank in latitude 43° N., but the overflow or outspreading 
 portion of the Stream often sweeps over the southern part of the 
 Bank, as a surface current, when unimpeded by the ice. When 
 the ice appears in great quantities it is probable that the Gulf 
 Stream current coming from the west, carries the ice more east- 
 wardly, from its previous southwesterly course. In thus yielding 
 to the joint influence of the two currents, the surface ice assumes a 
 new direction, towards the south or southeast. 
 
 Grounded icebergs, when quite stationary, afford the best means 
 for observing the course of the common ice fields. The course 
 of the ice-drift, within the influence of the Gulf Stream, doubtless 
 varies at difljerent times and localities, and must be greatly influ- 
 enced by the depth of the floating masses. For in the case of 
 icebergs or islands, particularly those which come down from the 
 Greenland seas and pass eastward of the Grand Bank, their great 
 depth subjects them to the continued impulsion of the lower or 
 arctic current after they arrive within the influence of the Gulf 
 Stream, the main part of the cold current passing beneath the 
 warmer one, by means of its deeper position as well as greater 
 specific gravity. 
 
 This may be shown from the cases before recited, of immense 
 icebergs which have been impelled into the body of the Gulf 
 Stream, where, instead of being drifted off" to the eastward, in con- 
 formity with its course and with the like tendency of the pre- 
 vailing winds, some of these floating islands have been forced 
 across the body of the stream, and in some cases even far beyond 
 its ordinary limits, to a latitude lower than that of the southern 
 boundary of Virginia ; as shown in the two cases given by Capt. 
 Couthouy. The most eastward of these, in longitude 39°, and 
 south from the usual eastern limit of the Greenland icebergs that 
 arrive in the latitude of the Banks, was near seven degrees lower 
 
16 Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 
 
 in latitude than the southern extremity of the Grand Bank. The 
 other icebergs noticed by him, in like latitude, and longitude 
 67° 35', probably passed near to Newfoundland, and their position 
 shows, in a more striking manner, the strong westwardly ten- 
 dency of the polar current. 
 
 No impulsion but that of a vast current, setting in a general 
 southwesterly direction and passing beneath the Gulf Stream, 
 could have carried these immense bodies to their observed posi- 
 tions, on routes which cross the gulf current in a region where 
 its average breadth has been found to be about two hundred and 
 fifty miles. 
 
 The continued southwestern, and even more westwardly course 
 of that portion of the polar current which is found southward of 
 Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and west of the Gulf Stream, is 
 conclusively shown by the two icebergs met with by H. M. packet 
 Express, July 7, 1836, on the southern edge of the Sable Bank, 
 about seventy-five miles southwest from Sable Island. The 
 highest of these, estimated at 180 feet, was in latitude 43° 14', 
 longitude 61° 17', the other, 150 feet high, in latitude 43° 09', 
 longitude 61° 26'. Owing to the great depth of these ice islands, 
 they could not have passed through the Strait of Belle Isle, but 
 must have been carried by the main current eastward and south- 
 ward of Newfoundland to their observed position, which, by the 
 nearest course, is near 500 English miles from ofi" Cape Race, the 
 southeast point of that island, in the direction S. 63° W., true 
 meridian, or W. S. W. J S. Of the further extension of this 
 portion of the polar current, in diminished force, along the coast 
 of the United States and the western border of the Gulf Stream, 
 as far as Cape Hatteras, if not to Florida, we have formerly 
 spoken, in another place.* 
 
 The finding of a low temperature on the southern part of the 
 Grand Bank, or even to the southward of latitude 43°, is not suf- 
 ficient evidence of the entire absence of the Gulf Stream current : 
 for the recent presence or proximity of floating ice must neces- 
 sarily cause a great reduction in the surface temperature, and 
 there is no natural process by which the cold water of the sur- 
 face stream can be changed for warmer with a rapidity sufficient 
 to preserve a temperature at all corresponding to the warm por- 
 tions of the Gulf Stream. 
 
 * This Journal, Vol. xxxii, p. 349. 
 
Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 1 7 
 
 It is well known that vessels in the northern part of the Gulf 
 Stream, while steering parallel to its general course, have met 
 with successive and striking changes in the temperature of the 
 water and sometimes with ice, to the southward of Nova Scotia 
 and Newfoundland, and in the proper line of the polar current. 
 This is well shown in the journals of the ships Eliza and Grand 
 Turk, as published in some former editions of the Coast Pilot. 
 In latitude 41° 53', longitude 56° 52', the Eliza found the water 
 at the depth of 70 fathoms two degrees warmer than that at the 
 surface, the temperature of the latter being 40°, and an ice island 
 bearing S. S. E., distant seven miles. S. S. W. and S. of the 
 Grand Bank, and in nearly the above latitude, the Eliza again 
 met with cold water and passed several ice islands. Rennell has 
 also recognized these cold veins or bodies of water in the Gulf 
 Stream. It appears, therefore, that in this portion of the Gulf 
 Stream, neither its presence nor its actual limits can be determined 
 with certainty by the thermometer, during the ice season. 
 
 It appears in the pages of the Coast Pilot, that Capt. Billings, 
 in June, 1791, found the temperature of the water in the Gulf 
 Stream to have fallen ten degrees, in latitude 39°, southward of 
 the Bank, and that the like had been observed by Dr. Franklin 
 and Col. Williams, in the same region. But, judging from the 
 latitude, it is not improbable that these observations were made 
 to the southward of the true border of the Gulf Stream. If this 
 be the true solution, it is indicative of the partial re-appearance of 
 the polar current, after passing beneath the Gulf Stream ; and 
 there is evidence of its further course to the S. W. and W. S. W., 
 near the border of the Stream. 
 
 This leads us to notice a probable, if not a principal cause of 
 the great variations, which have been reported, in the position 
 and limits of the Gulf Stream, in its eastward progress. Rennell, 
 we conceive, rightly supposes an overfloio or outspreading of the 
 Gulf Stream upon the ocean waters, as it proceeds in its course. 
 Now we know, from well established cases, that overflowing 
 streams, upon denser waters, are often very shallow ; and Capt. 
 Bayfield has shown, in the case of the estuary and Gulf of St. 
 Lawrence, that the effect of a storm is to break up, for the time, 
 this superficial current and amalgamate it with the deeper and 
 colder waters. Hence we may infer, that in good weather and 
 a smooth sea, the thermometric breadth of the Gulf Stream may 
 
18 Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic. 
 
 be far greater than in rough weather ; and that it is most straitened 
 in its limits immediately after the occurrence of a great storm. 
 
 Perhaps too little consideration has hitherto been given to the 
 character and eifects of the polar currents. These appear to be 
 well worthy of the attention of both the navigator and the phi- 
 losopher. We have seen that the moderate but miceasing flow 
 of these currents often interposes an icy barrier in one of the most 
 common routes of navigation. The observing geologist will also 
 discern in the courses of the ice-currents of the Atlantic, both 
 before and after their contact with the tropical stream, a striking 
 coincidence with the directions of the two systems of strife which 
 mark the abraded surfaces of the continental rocks ; the origin of 
 which must be referred to the early and prolonged period when 
 these rocks were situated beneath the ceaseless flow of the ocean 
 currents.* 
 
 New York, December 30th, 1844. 
 
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