196 

 quence and only a barely perceptible swell was present. 

 Between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the day after releasing the 

 cards, the VELERO IV recovered several of the cards and 

 sighted at least three other groups of cards floating in the 

 water. The ones recovered were from two different stations 

 and had drifted only about one mile south from their points 

 of release. All of these cards were returned to the water, 

 but were not subsequently recovered . 



Under these conditions of extreme calm and weak currents, 

 the cards were observed in clusters of four to ten or more 

 whose radii were of the order of 50 to 200 yards even after 

 nearly twenty four hours of drift. 

 Cruise of January 18 , 1956 



The current pattern in January was diametrically opposed 

 to that on December 29 (Fig. 91). Drift within the bay was 

 strongly to the north instead of to the south. In principal, 

 the pattern was reminiscent of the one on September 8, when 

 currents flowed to the north and then turned west past 

 Malibu and Point Dume. However, the currents on January 18 

 were more strongly developed „ On September 8, a great many 

 cards were recovered in the bay. On January 18, only two 

 cards were found on the same beaches, but twelve were, returned 

 from the coast between Point Dume and Ventura. 



There were four returns from Catalina Island and one 

 from La Jolla. This fact, together with the low percentage 

 of returns (4% from all stations) clearly indicates that after 

 escaping from Santa Monica Bay via its northern portal most 

 of the cards were carried well out to sea and to the south. 



