I&ii ADVERTISEMENT* 



The account of it is given in the Mercury of 

 France, of Saturday 12th January, 1788, No. 2, 

 pages 84 and 85^ political part. 



*' In 



number of bottles filled wine, beer, cider, and fpirits, the great 

 part of which are emptied in the courfe of a few weeks, without 

 the means of filling them again, during the whole voyage. In the 

 view of committing fome of them to the fea, there might be fitted 

 to them, perpendicularly, a little mafl with a bit of cloth, or tuft 

 of white feathers at the top. This fignal would detach it from 

 the azury ground of the Sea, and render it perceptible a great way 

 off. It would be proper to cafe it round with cordage, to pre- 

 vent it's being broken, on reaching a (liore, to which the Currents 

 and the Tides would infallibly carry it, fooner or later. Eflays 

 of this fort will appear mere children's play to our men of feience, 

 but they may be matters of the laft importance to fea-faring peo- 

 ple. They may ferve to indicate to them the direction and the 

 velocity of the Currents, in a manner much more infallible, and of 

 far greater extent, than the log which is thrown, on board of fliips, 

 or than the httle boats which are fet a-floating. This laft method, 

 thouoh frequently employed by the illuftrious Cook, never could 

 give any thing more than the relative velocity of the boat and of 

 the fhip, and not the intrinfic velocity of the Current. Finally, 

 fuch eflays, expofed to hazard as they are, may be employed by- 

 mariners at Sea, to convey intelligence of themfelves to their 

 friends, at immenfe diftances from land, as is evident in the expe- 

 riment of the Bay of Bifcay, and to obtain afliftance from them, 

 fliould they have the misfortune to be fliipwrecked on fome de- 

 fert ifland. 



We do not repofe fufficient confidence in Nature. We might 

 employ, preferably to bottles, fome of the trajeftiles which flie 

 ufes, in different climates, to keep up the chain of her correfpon- 

 dences all over the Globe. One of the moft widely diffufed over 



the 



