724 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
it was in 1920, is yet to be learned. However, observations taken by W. W. Welsh 
between Cape Ann and Cape Elizabeth, in 1913 (Bigelow, 1914a), favor the first 
alternative by showing about this same vernal schedule, with the surface off the 
mouth of the Merrimac saltest at about the end of March and freshening slowly 
thereafter. Unfortunately there was a gap in his observations for the interval April 
5 to 13; but his numerous records on the fishing grounds near the Isles of Shoals 
revealed a decrease in the surface salinity there from 31.56 per mille on the 13th to 
30.03 per mille on the 26th, and to 29.54 per mille on May 5. 
Fig. 101. — Surface salinity, April 6 to 20, 1920 (and for the Bay of Fundy, April 9, 1917; from Mavor, 1923) 
The general distribution of salinity is proof enough that the discharges from 
the great rivers that empty into the Bay of Fundy and along the coast of Maine 
(St. John, Penobscot, Kennebec, Saco, and Merrimac) turn westward, paralleling 
the shore and building up the so-called “spring current” reported by local fishermen 
— not spreading southward toward Nova Scotia. As no large rivers empty into the 
gulf from that Province, no such extreme vernal freshening of the surface is to be 
expected along its western shore as characterizes the northern and western margins 
