PHYSICAL OCEAN OGBAPHY OF THE GULF 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, 78 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 line 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 3 14 miles per day. The daily rate of another bottle (No. 
1523), which went from the mid section of the line to a point 8 miles 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. 79 
The rapidity of these westerly drifts, which can not be disputed, makes it 
likely that four other bottles that went from this fine to the entrance to Penobscot 
Bay and to St. Georges River, 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 fine but did not soon strand, may have paralleled 
the coast before veering offshore 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 Elizabeth. Had their general route led farther westward, more bottles from 
the Cape Elizabeth fine might have been expected to show a southerly drift than 
the few actually so reported (p. 901). 
Some few bottles from the Mount Desert fine, hugging the shore line closest, 
may have crossed the Cape Elizabeth fine, but the time intervals between release 
and recovery make it more likely that all that went across the gulf from the offing 
of Mount Desert passed to the seaward of the outer end of the Cape Elizabeth fine — 
i. e., more than 25 miles offshore — and it is so indicated on the chart (fig. 182). 
78 It was high tide at Southwest Harbor at 6.26 a.m. on that day; the bottles in question (Nos. 1603 and 1610) were put out 
shortly afterwards. 
78 Assuming that it was picked up in the afternoon. 
