Physical Geography of the Great Oceans 99 



to throw overboard a bottle containing a note of the position 

 and a request to the finder that the paper might be sent home 

 with a record of the time and place of discovery. Up to 

 the present date four of these bottles have been reported 

 as found. Two of these, A and B, were thrown overboard 

 off the Kroo coast; A on the 6th January, in lat. 6 40' N., 

 12 32' W., a distance of 42 miles from the coast; and 

 B on the 8th January, in 4 49' N., 9 38' W., a distance of 

 30 miles off the coast. A was picked up by a native who 



hed it coming ashore in the breakers, in lat. 5 47' N., 

 long. o 35' E., about 10 miles from Addah, on 5th March. 



.is picked up on Bey Beach in lat. 6 8' N., long. i 17' E., 

 about 40 miles further east than A, on the 2nd March. A had 

 thus travelled 862 miles in 58 days, the average rate per day 

 being 15 miles, and B had travelled 690 miles in 53 days at 

 an average rate of 13 miles per day. They were washed 

 ashore, one on one side and the other on the other side of 

 Cape St Paul where the tide-rips and discoloured water show 

 the meeting of different current systems. 



change in the character of the current at different 



s is shown by the fact that in travelling north from the 

 equator towards Sierra Leone in March, the "Buccaneer" 

 experienced no easterly current, and a bottle thrown overboard 

 on this passage was washed ashore on the Kroo coast, whereas 

 if the same current had prevailed in both March and January 

 the bottle would have been carried round Cape Palmas and into 

 the Gulf of Guinea. In connection with the absence of easterly 

 currents off the coast may be taken the very remarkable 

 undt-i - urn -nt which is found set tin ^ in a south-easterly direction 

 with a velocity of over a mile per hour at tlm-r stations almost 

 on the equator, and to the northward of the island of Ascension 

 For the double pur| >>-,< of examining tin- currents and of 

 obtaining a large specimen of the bottom, the "Buccaneer" 

 was anchored in 1800 fathoms of water by means of an 



li<>r nttr.l witli a rain-as bag to rerriv,- the mud whirh 



1 Mth.-rwiM' f.ill off the flukes on its being wci-hrd While 



the sin}) wai Km- tlm- at anchor, the surface water was found 



ive a very slight westerly set. At a depth of 15 fathoms 



72 



