6 Fishery Board for Scotland. 
while the only bottle recovered of Group 8, which was put away 
some ten miles to the north-west of Group 7, was found near Wick. 
None of Group 9 or 10 were returned, but the two bottles recovered 
from Group 11 got widely separated, one being found at Burra 
Island, Shetland, and the other on the coast of Stradland, Norway. 
The two returned from Group 12 were almost similarly located, 
one being picked up by a trawl in 79 fathoms of water off Noup 
Head, the other on the beach near Christiansand, South. 
Four from Group 13 were recovered, one having stranded on 
Burra Island, two on the northern shores of Norway at Vandoe 
Islands, and the fourth was trawled up from 34 fathoms close to 
Sule Skerry Island, 30 miles from the position where it was put away. 
Of Group 14, put away in the Minch, one was found on Rowsa 
Island, Orkney, and another on the north coast of Norway. The 
single bottle recovered from Group 19 was also found at the Orkney 
Islands, while one from Group 16, put away close to the island of 
St. Kilda, was picked up at the Vandoe Islands, 1000 miles distant. 
One bottle of a group of five, which was put away ten miles north- 
east of St. Kilda, was recovered by a trawler in 58 fathoms, having 
been carried four miles to the north-west. 
The return from the western areas is meagre and rather 
disappointing. The nine bottles found on our home coasts, 
however, indicate that the bottom current sets eastward from the 
Atlantic, and passes through the channel between the Shetland and 
Orkney Islands. The route followed by the several bottles found 
on the Norwegian coasts is very problematicnl. I have assumed that 
Nos. 14.and 16 have passed northward off the west side of the Shetlands. 
Some or all of them may have floated on the surface, and this is 
highly probable, as the average velocity of the bottles of Groups 11, 
12, 13, 14, and 16 found on distant coasts is, 1, 0.5, 1.6, 0.9, and 
1.7 miles per day respectively. 
As shewing the paucity of returns from the western areas, it may 
be recorded that 70 bottles were put away from the ‘“‘ Goldseeker ” 
in May, 1911, between the Shetland and Faeroe Islands, but none 
so far have been recovered. 
Lone Distancr DRrirts. 
Chart ITT. also shews the probable track followed by the eight 
other messengers which were found on the coasts of Denmark and 
Norway. In drawing these tracks we have been guided by the 
bottom curves as calculated from the data derived from the trawled 
bottles, and on the whole we find it is quite a simple matter to lay off a - 
track for each bottle between their initial and terminal positions, 
which is easy to reconcile with the apparent general trend of the 
bottom currents. 
For instance, there were ten bottles put away from position six, 
and four of them were brought up by trawls at various points lying 
to the southward of this position, in fact, just on the track we have 
laid down of the bottle of the same group which was picked up on 
the coast of Denmark. 
Likewise, No. 62 has been carried first to the southward. then to 
the eastward, and eventually got washed up on the coast near 
Christiansand. 
Sixty-seven was a group of ten bottles, seven of which were 
recovered; four on the Scottish coast, one by a trawler, and the 
