PHYSICAL OOEANOGKAPHY OF THE GULP OF MAINE 905 



Nova Scotia. It may have entered the south side of the Bay of Fundy, come out 

 again past Grand Manan, and then circled the western end of the latter and so 

 into the channel, as would be compatible with the current measurements in that 

 region. Or it .may have circled northward past the mouth of the bay but close 

 enough to Grand Manan to be caught up in the indraft into the channel. 



The general conclusion that all this group of bottles followed an eddylike course 

 and did not drift directly eastward is directly corroborated by nine bottles from this 

 same line, picked up to the westward along the coast of Maine. The fact that these 

 were set out at intervals from the inner end of the line to the outer is evidence that 

 the surface was involved in this movement for at least 25 miles out from the land. 



Two bottles from the inner end of the line, picked up on Great Duck Island two 

 days later, may have made their journey on the tide, for they were set out early in 

 the ebb,^' which sets toward the southwest here. A greater distance covered (10 

 miles) makes it likely that bottle No. 1515, which went to Long Island (also to the 

 westward), made its landfall on the second tidal period; and it is certain that No. 

 1521, which went from the inner end of the Une to Kennebunk, Me. (a distance of 

 about 107 miles in a direct line), in 32 days, was carried with a very definite drift, for 

 its rate was not less than 3H miles per day. The daily rate of another bottle (No. 

 1523), which went from the mid section of the line to a point 8 mUes southeast of 

 Isle au Haut, 31 miles away, was ostensibly much more rapid, for it was reported as 

 picked up the day after it was set out. This date, however, can hardly have been 

 correct Allowing one day's error (which is probably the correct explanation), the 

 daily rate would be about 7 miles to the westward.'^ 



The rapidity of these westerly drifts, which can not be disputed, makes it 

 likely that four other bottles that went from this line to the entrance to Penobscot 

 Bay and to St. Georges Eiver, a few miles farther west (Nos. 1553, 1565, 1566, and 

 1599), but were not found until after 35 to 38 days afloat, were drifting to and 

 fro with the strong tides of Penobscot Bay for some days before they stranded and 

 were noticed. 



It is impossible, of course, to determine how far any given bottle, which moved 

 westward from the Mount Desert line but did not soon strand, may have paralleled 

 the coast before veering ofifshore toward the center of the gulf, but it is probable 

 that most of them did so somewhere between the longitudes of Penobscot Bay and 

 Cape Ehzabeth. Had their general route led farther westward, more bottles from 

 the Cape Elizabeth line might have been expected to show a southerly drift than 

 the few actually so reported (p. 901). 



Some few bottles from the Mount Desert line, hugging the shore line closest, 

 may have crossed the Cape Elizabeth line, but the time intervals between release 

 and recovery make it more likely that all that went across the gulf from the ofSng 

 of Mount Desert passed to the seaward of the outer end of the Cape Elizabeth line — 

 i. e., more than 25 miles offshore — and it is so indicated on the chart (fig. 182). 



" It was high tide at Southwest Harbor at 6.26 a.m. on that day; the bottles in question (Nos. 1503 and 1610) were put out 

 shortly afterwards. 



" Assuming that it was picked up in the afternoon. 



