478 THOMAS THOMSEN 



Captain C. RYDER, of the Danish Navy, now head of the Danish 

 Meteorological Institute, has carried out a series of investigations in 

 connection with the currents in northern waters by means of bottle 

 post. 1 Thus in the course of his expedition to East Greenland 1891 

 92, a bottle was set out at Heklahavn in Scoresby Sound; after a 

 lapse of 20 months it was found among the islands outside the har- 

 bour of Reykjavik. The chart in RYDER'S paper 2 shows its supposed 

 route as running close in towards Cape Nord, in Isafjordssyssel, 

 whence it should then have proceeded along the north, east and 

 south coasts of Iceland, finally bringing up at Reykjavik, in Guld- 

 bringasyssel. From -this it is evident, that Scoresby Sound must be 

 reckoned as among the places whence the objects above mentioned 

 might have come. 3 



Thinking now, that it should be possible to fix a southern limit 

 for such possible starting places, I consulted Captain Ryder on the 

 subject; he informed me, that if the objects had drifted from the 

 east coast of Greenland directly to Iceland', then the southern part 

 of the coast would be out of the question ; they could hardly have 

 come from anywhere south of 65. 



Theoretically, there still remained the possibility that the objects 

 might have started from the southern east coast or from the west 

 coast of Greenland, and followed the other branch of the Arctic 

 Current northward and west over to Labrador, and thence south 

 and east, finally approaching the coast of Iceland from the south- 

 ward. Practically speaking, however, this alternative may doubtless 

 be disregarded. The bottle from Scoresby Sound took 20 months 

 to reach Reykjavik; objects travelling by the other route would be 

 several years on the way, and even if they escaped being washed 

 ashore at other places on the lengthy voyage, there is no doubt that 

 in any case a thing of so frail construction as the cross-shaped 

 kayak stool must have been dashed to pieces long before it could 

 have reached so far. 



Such argument may not perhaps furnish any decisive proof; 

 nevertheless, the case in question does seem to indicate with a pro- 



1 RYDER III- IV. 



2 RYDER III, Chart IX, H. 53. 



3 Of the remaining material, only a small amount has any bearings on the regions 

 with which we are here concerned ; a bottle set out at sea outside Scoresby Sound 

 (loc. cit, H. 5) and another outside Franz Josephs Fjord (H. 38) both drifted 

 eastward round Iceland, but escaped the Irminger current, and continued their 

 course towards the Fser0es, where the latter was washed ashore, while the former 

 floated still farther eastward, and turned up along the Coast of Norway, where 

 it was found off Throndhjem. Finally, a bottle set out off Angmagsalik, but 4 

 5 farther east, came ashore at Berufjord, midway up the east coast of Ice- 

 land. (RYDER IV, chart I, A 63.) 



