460 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



Experiment B. — The purpose of this experiment was to determine the drift of 

 the water discharged by the Housatonic during the first and last stages of the ebb tide. 

 Two groups of 50 bottles each were released in the channel at black buoy No. 3. 

 When the bottles of Group 3 were put out at the beginning of ebb tide, the velocity 

 of the current was 1.2 feet per second, and when Group 4 was released at three- 

 quarters ebb the current had attained a velocity of 2.5 feet per second. The dis- 

 tribution of the bottles during the first month is shown in Figures 18 and 19. The 

 majority of Group 3 were recovered to the eastward along the Connecticut shore, from 

 Stratford Point to Joshua Point, a distance of about 20 miles. One of these bottles 

 was the only one of the 500 that succeeded in getting out into the Atlantic Ocean 

 and was recovered on the southern shore of Long Island near Amagansett Light- 

 house. The bottles of Group 4 were distributed more widely, and during the first 

 two weeks the majority went to the Connecticut shore and for the most part were 

 found west of Stratford Point as far as Darien, a distance of 17 miles. 



Another outstanding difference of this group is the recovery of about one-third 

 of the bottles on the Long Island shore 3 and 4 weeks after they were released. The 

 chief cause of the difference in the distribution of the bottles of Groups 3 and 4 is 

 the velocity and direction of discharge of the Housatonic River at different stages 

 of the ebb tide. At the first quarter of ebb tide, though the current from the river 

 is quite strong, it is met at the entrance by an equally strong ebb current in the 

 Sound, with the result that the river water is carried in an ESE. direction! At the 

 period of about three-quarters ebb, the current from the river has attained consider- 

 able strength, while in the Sound we have comparatively slack water. Under these 

 conditions, the river water is discharged straight out into the Sound, oftentimes 

 reaching as far as Stratford Shoal. As the tide in the Sound begins to run flood, 

 this water is forced to the westward and toward the Connecticut shore and is dis- 

 tributed much the same as the drift bottles of Group 4. In the spring and summer 

 the water discharged by the river during the last of ebb tide has a high temperature 

 and low salinity, and its distribution to the westward is responsible, to a great extent, 

 for producing suitable water conditions over this area for the production and setting 

 of oysters. 



Ex-periment C. — (See figs. 20 and 21.) This experiment was planned so as to 

 study the drift of the water close inshore, where the influence of river discharge is 

 negligible. Groups 6 and 8, which were released with the flood tide, were recovered 

 during the first week along the Connecticut shore east from Stratford Point to New 

 Haven, in the second week west from Stratford Point to the Norwalk Islands, and 

 in the third week on Long Island from Hortons Point to Roanoke Point. In Groups 

 5 and 7 the distribution of the bottles was very similar, the recoveries having been 

 made a little more to the eastward because they were released with the ebb current. 

 The place and time of recovery of the bottles in experiment C indicate the same general 

 clockwise circulation of the water in Long Island Sound as is shown in experiments 

 A and B. 



SUMMARY 



The results of the drift-bottle experiments may be summarized as follows: 

 1. Five hundred bottles were released and of these, 290, or 58 per cent, were 

 recovered in a period of 10 months. 



