BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



Mavor's bottles in 1919 showed a similar movement across the entrance of the bay, 

 three passing the tip and stranding along the outer side of the cape. However, 

 although the main body of the water mass escapes Massachusetts Bay, bottles placed 

 on the north side indicate that a definite drift passes in along the shore. This set was 

 noted previously in April by the course of bottle No. 99 from Ipswich Bay to the Brant 

 Rock. 



There is considerable uncertainty about the movements of the drift in Cape Cod 

 Bay in May. In February the presence of a uniform anticlockwise set was evidenced 

 clearly by the fact that all recovered bottles not grounding along the way passed 

 directly into Provincetown Harbor. However, none of those set out in May reached 

 Province town; in fact, but one stranded in the bay. Figure 15 gives the possible 

 movements of bottles at this time. It will be seen that, although the general move- 

 ments of all bottles placed in Cape Cod Bay were northerly, the exact courses are 

 rather confusing. 



One would hardly expect that bottle No. 117 would require 11 days to travel 

 12 miles and bottle No. 114, placed out on the same day, 9 days to travel 18 miles. 

 The fact that these two bottles passed to the west, directly across the path of two 

 others set out at virtually the same time and which rounded the cape in the opposite 

 direction, is further evidence of the complexity of the set in Cape Cod Bay at this 

 time. Again, in view of the courses taken by the two bottles from station 14 and those 

 from stations 6 and 7, the course of bottle No. 103 to Dennisport Beach is not clear. 

 Therefore, after the beginning of the spring floods, it is not possible to retain the 

 regions into which the bay was divided on the basis of February returns. 



Bottles placed in Cape Cod Bay in May drifted in a northerly direction and joined 

 the easterly set out of Massachusetts Bay. Thus, at this time the eggs from all the 

 grounds would drift out. The two sections of the northern region, in turn, could not 

 be distinguished because the movement of all bottles leaving the bay was southerly. 

 That a branch later may pass to the east is illustrated by subsequent observations. 

 As far as is known, none of the bottles set out in May, 1925, by the Fish Hawk took 

 this course; but part of a line placed in Cape Cod Bay on April 19, 1926 (Bigelow, 

 1927), were recovered in Nova Scotian waters and part at Nantucket. This indicates 

 that, even though the dominant drift across the mouth of Massachusetts Bay at this 

 time is southerly, eggs spawned on the Ipswich and Plymouth grounds in the late 

 spring may be transported to either Georges Banks or Nantucket Shoals. 



In discussing the results of the April, 1926, series, Bigelow (1927) speaks of 

 a "strong or general tendency southward, across the mouth of Massachusetts Bay 

 and so down past Cape Cod, recalling the drifts of bottles from Ipswich Bay and 

 out of Massachusetts Bay the spring before. All that is needed to make the parallel 

 between the two years complete is Nova Scotian returns for the series of 1926." 

 However, no matter how the currents set in Cape Cod Bay in the late spring, the 

 conditions are equally unfavorable for retaining cod eggs; for, as indicated by the 

 five recovered bottles set out in this region, all not destroyed are carried out. 



KATE OF DRIFT IN MAY 



Four bottles set adrift on the May cruise were recovered before grounding. 

 The average rate of Nos. 126, 127, and 106 (the courses of which are obvious) was 

 3 miles per day. The rate of No. 109 from station 14 was 3.4 miles, while the rate 



