126 FOUNDERS OF OCEANOGRAPHY 



a number of subsequent soundings and temperature deter- 

 minations. The depth of the barrier separating the 

 " Monaco " deep from the ocean outside, it is calculated by 

 Mr. Buchanan, must be between 850 and 900 fathoms. This 

 feature of enclosed basins, cut off by submarine barriers from 

 the ocean around, and containing warmer water than their 

 depth warrants, seems to be one that is common to many 

 archipelagos, and examples are known from the West 

 Indies, the Sulu Seas, Celebes, the Mediterranean, and the 

 Red Sea. In a previous chapter we have seen a somewhat 

 similar case in the Faroe Channel, where the Wyville Thom- 

 son ridge prevents the cold bottom Arctic water from flowing 

 into the area of warmer Atlantic water. 



There is another investigation which wiU always be 

 connected with the Prince of Monaco's name, and that is his 

 distribution, commenced as far back as 1885, of floats or 

 drift bottles over wide areas of the Atlantic starting from the 

 Azores as a centre, in order to determine the set of the 

 currents. These floats, in some cases bottles, in others 

 blocks of wood, but in the later development of the work 

 spherical copper vessels so weighted as to float just below the 

 surface in order to avoid the direct action of the wind, 

 contained in sealed tubes a paper printed in nine languages, 

 requesting the finder to fill up certain details and return 

 it to the ofiice at Monaco. In his first experiments, out of 

 931 floats so distributed on certain lines across the ocean, 

 226 have been found and returned, and the results of their 

 wanderings have yielded a considerable amount of valuable 

 information in regard to the movements of currents in the 

 North Atlantic and especially of the Gulf Stream water. 

 These and other later observations, resulting from the 

 distribution of about 2,000 floats in all, have enabled the 

 Prince to draw up a valuable chart showing the surface 

 circulation of the Atlantic water, upon which he was un- 

 doubtedly at the time of his death the leading authority. 



It is of interest to notice in this connection a recent paper 



