MIGRATIONS OF COO 
87 
Recoveries from a line of drift bottles run 10 miles off Cape Ann, Mass., in April, 
1926 (Bigelow, ibid., p. 878), showed the following periods of drift between there and 
the Nantucket Shoals region: 1 bottle was recovered 32 days later at Race Point, 
Cape Cod, a distance of about 37 miles, or an average velocity of 1.15 miles per 
day; 13 2 bottles went to Chatham, 70 miles, in 30 and 38 daj 7 s, respectively, at an 
average for the two of 2.09 miles; another was taken off Monomoy, Cape Cod, after 
49 days, 75 miles, at 1.53 miles per day; 2 reached the island of Nantucket, the mean 
rates being 57 days, 115 miles, at 2 miles per day; and another went to the south 
shore of Marthas Vineyard in 74 days, about 130 miles, at 1.76 miles per day. 
The following results weire obtained from a line of drift bottles set out in Massa- 
chusetts Bay February 6 and 7, 1925 (Bigelow, 1927, p. 876, and Fish, 1928, p. 277): 
Out of 90 bottles 27, or 30 per cent, were recovered, of which 4 went around Cape 
Cod or toward the Nantucket Shoals region. Of these 1 was reported 29 miles east- 
southeast from Stellwagen Bank (there is some doubt about the exact locality of 
recovery) 9 days later and about 49 miles away 7 , a velocity of 5.4 miles per day; 
2 were taken on tbe south shore of Nantucket, 88 miles in 128 days, and 80 miles in 
144 days, respectively, from the place and time of release, an average velocity of 
0.62 mile per day (these latter may have been delayed inside the arm of Cape Cod 
or elsewhere); and 1 was recovered after 149 days, off Fire Island, N. Y., and had 
traveled about 220 miles, at an average velocity of 1.48 miles per day. 
In May, 1925, drift bottles were put out in various parts of Massachusetts 
Bay. (Bigelow, 1927, p. 877, and Fish, 1928, p. 278.) The recoveries include 
2 bottles which crossed the bay in 5 and 6 days, at a velocity of 3.6 and 2.5 miles, 
respectively; 1 bottle went from the southern tip of Stellwagen Bank to 75 miles 
southeast by east from Cape Cod Light (which places it in South Channel), a distance 
of about 90 miles in 22 days at 4.1 miles a day; another went to Dennisport, on the 
southern coast of Cape Cod, about 80 miles in 17 days at 4.7 miles per day; while 
another was found near Edgartown, Marthas Vineyard, 65 days later, a distance of 
about 120 miles from its place of release near the middle of Cape Cod Bay, and average 
velocity of about 1.8 miles per day. 
In addition to these drift bottle records, current measurements by the United 
States Coast and Geodetic Survey (Bigelow, 1927, p. 864) were made along the out- 
side coast of Cape Cod. That the current runs strong there is shown by the 12 
miles per day southward drift that was obtained off Nauset Light. Current meas- 
urements taken from June to September, 1911, at Pollock Rip Lightship and at Round 
Shoal Lightship, which are on the fringe of Nantucket Shoals at the entrance to , 
Nantucket Sound, showed a dominant drift toward the southeast at velocities of 
9 to 10 and 2 to 3 miles per 24 hours, respectively. 
As a result of these various bottle experiments and current measurements there 
is some evidence that during the winter and spring the velocity of that part of the 
dominant drift which sets southward along the coast of Maine and out and around 
Cape Cod to southern Massachusetts is of about the following order of magnitude: 
About 5 to 8 miles per 24 hours from eastern Maine to Cape Ann, 2 to 5 miles across 
Massachusetts Bay to the north tip of Cape Cod, and about 2% miles from Cape 
Ann to tbe Nantucket Shoals region. The latter rate is based on the average velocity 
of eight bottles which drifted from Cape Ann and Massachusetts Bay to South 
Channel, Nantucket, and Marthas Vineyard.) 
13 These are minimum velocities, for, no doubt, some of the drift bottles were anchored on the shore for some time before they 
were found. 
