Surface water movement, western Lake Erie

Controversy over the practicability of using drift bottles or cards for determining water movement has led to a long dispute. It is hoped that this paper will con-tribute some information toward the ending of the dispute. With the use of drift cards present findings show a close correlation between the wind and the surface current flow. Since Harrington's (1895) first report on the currents of Lake Erie by using drift bottles, studies have been carried on intermittently. Olson (1951) used drift cards as a substitute for drift bottles, and the change was for the best, as drift cards are inexpensive and give greater accuracy to the surface flow because they are not exposed to the wind. Olson's (1950) method of multiple release or putting cards out over a large area in a short period of time was varied by using a line release. This technique employed the principle of putting a solid line of cards several miles long in the lake. The longest line tried was 27 miles, on which over 500 cards were released or about one card every 260 feet. In the past two years over 3200 cards wer