CURRENT-BOTTLES. 



landings take place evenly scattered on the routes of the bottles. In stating the exact speed the 

 length of time elapsed, after the landing of the bottles, must be taken into consideration. 



Circumstances have not favored the experiments, which have been made. The bottles could 

 only reach land at three places, namely on Iceland, the Faeroe-Islands and the coast of Norway, and 

 these coasts are so thinly populated, that a bottle may lie long before it is found. 



All the bottles have undoubtedly drifted with the East-Icelandic Polar-current; some have 

 landed on the Faeroe-Islands, while the greater part has reached the Western coast of Norway. With 

 our knowledge of the East-Icelandic Polar-current, the passage of the bottles to the Fseroe-Islands can 

 be drawn with approximate exactness; we can only imagine their directions between the Fseroe-Is- 

 lands and Norway. Along the Western coast of Norway the bottles follow the current running north- 

 wards, and from the date, when the relatively first bottles were found, we can ascertain the slowest 

 speed they can have had and thereby also judge of the speed of the current. 



The bottles — 20 in number — were thrown during the period from the 19th to the 22nd of 

 July 1896 on <Ingolf»s voyage from Langanses to Jan Mayen. The places, from where the bottles 

 were thrown, are shown on the attached chart with ° and a figure, which indicates the number of 

 the bottle. The place, where the respective bottle has been found is indicated by a X with correspon- 

 ding number and date. The curves indicate the routes, which the bottles are supposed to have taken. 



According to our knowledge of the direction of the currents at Iceland and especially on 

 account of what has been stated on this matter in the section «Hydrography» of this report, page 117 

 and following, there cannot be any doubt, that the movement of all the bottles has in the beginning 

 been towards the South, following the East-Icelandic Polar-current and then towards the East, follo- 

 wing this current in the direction of the Fseroe-Islands; it is not very likely, that they have passed 

 very much to the South of these islands, as they must have been stopped here by the Gulfstream- 

 water going North-East and we cannot suppose either, that they have gone very much to the North 

 of the islands, judging from the direction taken by bottle no. 8. 



The routes of the bottles must be supposed to converge somewhat towards the Fseroe-Islands. 



Those of the bottles, which have drifted as southerly as the Fseroe-Islands and have not been 

 found there, have passed outside of or between the Fseroe-Islands and have finally landed on the 

 Western coast of Norway. 



When the bottles have first come into the neighbourhood of the Fseroe-Islands, they will be 

 drawn into the whirlpool, which runs round these islands and is due to the action of the local tide. 

 Their courses might then cross each other, for the arrival of a bottle one hour sooner or later within 

 the whirlpool may cause it to take a very different direction. 



It is not possible to state (and it might be due to mere chance), how many times a bottle 

 might drift round or pass between the islands, if it does not land, but there cannot be any doubt, that 

 the courses of the bottles have crossed each other, while they have been in the neighbourhood of the 

 Faeroe-Islands and that the bottles have left the Faeroe-Islands in a very different order to that, in 

 which they arrived. 



If we now take into consideration the drifting of the different bottles separately, then we shall 

 see, that bottle no. 20, which was thrown near Jan Mayen, was found about 4 x / 2 months later at Langa- 



