Additional Notes on the Jh'cp Currents in the Norili Sea. 5 



a moment tlie trawled bottles, Gla, G2c, antl r25, which have, as already 

 mentioned, followed a direction contrary to om* previous knowledge. 



It is quite conceivable that 61a, which was put away in area 67, 

 instead of being carried to the N.W. towards the position where it 

 was found, may also, like 40c, have been carried eastward across the 

 Witch Ground, then northerly up the east side of it, and thence 

 westerly into area 48 where it was trawled up. If such were the case, 

 180 miles would cover the distance on this assumed route, the average 

 speed working out at about 18 miles per 100 days. 



Group 125 was put away from the same position as gxoup 61, 

 but six months later, and one of this lot was also trawled up to the 

 north and west of the initial position, and seems also to have been 

 carried in opposition to the usual trend of the current. But the same 

 argument as we have just applied to Gla could also be applied to this 

 bottle, and if it has drifted round in the same way its mean velocity 

 would be about 24 miles per 100 days. 



Group 62 was a lot of 5 bottles put away in area 66. One was 

 picked up 33 miles S. 48° E. from the original position, and so agrees 

 with the former resultant, but the other bottle was carried 40 miles 

 almost true north, which is considerably at variance with the mean 

 direction for this area. 



Presumably both of these bottles have in the first instance been 

 carried in a south-easterly direction, and while the former may have 

 been held up by some obstruction, the latter may have come under 

 the influence of the north-going stream which eddies counter clockwise 

 round the Witch Ground. If such be the case, then, it has travelled 

 some 240 miles to reach the position where it was trawled up, at a 

 speed of about 11 miles per 100 days. 



The mean velocity attained by these four messengers is about 

 17 miles per 100 days. iUthough this is above the average speed of 

 the south-going current, on the west side of the Witch Ground, yet it 

 is a fair average for the north-going stream on the east side of it, and 

 so far as their rate of progxess is concerned, there seems no reason 

 to doubt the probability of these bottles having followed a circular 

 route. These assumed routes are shown in the accompanying chart. 



We have not been able in our investigations of the bottom drift 

 to prove that the deep currents eddy round and make a complete 

 circle. There has already been an indication that this might be the 

 case, derived, however, from the drift of a smgle bottle and referred 

 to in the Second Report, page 5, but if the foregoing deductions 

 regarding bottles 40c, 61a, 62c, and 125 be correct, then we are 

 beginning to get indirect but cumulative evidence that at least the 

 central eddies in the vicinity of the Witch Ground form a closed curve. 



Little or no information has been got from the region lying to the 

 east of the Shetland Islands, and it is in an endeavour to bridge this 

 gap in om- statistics that detailed reference has been made to these 

 fom- bottles. 



Third Expemnent. — It was confidently exjjectcd that the results 

 of the Third Experiment would yield valuable information and enable 

 us to determine much that is obscure regarding the deep currents 

 in the less frequented areas of the North Sea ; also to furnish the 

 material necessary to establish, if po.-sible, a direct connection between 

 those resultants which are widely separated. 



