Mavor. — Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine 343 



direct effect of the wind. Fifty-five of these latter bottles with drags 

 were set out and six have been found and reported from outside the 

 Bay of Fundy, to date (August 6, 1920). Three of these were picked 

 up on the Cape Cod peninsula, the rest on the coast of Maine. Of the 

 two hundred and seventy-five bottks without drags, ten have been re- 

 ported from outside the bay. Eight of these ten were picked up on the 

 Cape Cod peninsula, the other two on the coast of Maine. 



The times when the bottles were found are significant since they 

 establish a minimum rate for the drift. Seven out of the eleven bottles 

 which went to Cape Cod were found between 70 and 80 days after 

 being put out, the shortest time being 7Z days. The distance in a 

 straight line from the Bay of Fundy is about 300 nautical miles. The 

 rate of the drift was therefore about four nautical miles per day. 



The drift of these bottles, set out at various times during the 

 summer, indicates a surface movement of the water from the Bay of 

 Fundy through the northwestern part of the Gulf of Maine and striking 

 Cape Cod, the rate of this drift being about four nautical miles per day. 



Discussion 



Dr. a, G. Huntsman, St. Andrews, N. B. : Dr. Mavor's paper on 

 the "Circulation of the Water in the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine" 

 has to do with a subject which, it would seem at first sight, is not very 

 closely related to the fisheries and, perhaps, a subject of little moment. 

 Fresh water circulation is a fairly definite thing. The water comes down 

 and runs through certain definite channels ; so there is not much question 

 as to what the circulation is. But in the case of the waters of the sea, 

 the conditions are extremely different. You would at first think that the 

 measurement of currents would be the readiest means of solving this 

 question as to where the water is going, but unfortunately in the sea 

 there are what is known as tides which produce very strong currents 

 which do not always travel in one direction, but which go to and fro. 

 When these currents are extremely strong, as happens to be the case in 

 the Bay of Fundy, with tidal differences of as much as fifty feet, the 

 actual movement of the water in any one direction is entirely obscured 

 by the tremendous to and fro movements of the water, and current 

 measurements may accomplish comparatively little in determining the 

 direction in which the water is moving. For that reason, in order to 

 work out the results set forth in Professor Mavor's paper, a very con- 

 siderable investigation had to be carried on into the conditions affecting 

 the circulation of the water in the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of Maine. 



The significance of these results as they affect the fisheries is the 

 way in which the floating life in the sea may be carried. The term 

 "floating life" includes not only the microscopic plants and animals 

 that have no directive swimming capacity — that is, swimming in a 

 definite direction to one or the other points of the compass, or against 



