30 CANON NORMAN THE CELTIC PROVINCE : 



thence east " was well founded. The second part of my 

 statement was : " It would seem that comparatively very few, 

 if any, southern species have made their way far north through 

 the Straits of Dover." Recent investigations have confirmed 

 and at the same time accounted for this statement. 



With a view of tracing the direction of the flow of the waters 

 from the south which enter the Straits of Dover, Mr. Greorge P. 

 Bidder made use of a large quantity of submerged bottles. 

 These bottles were so weighted that a wire suspended from them 

 was just dragging along the bottom. Thus wind-action had no 

 influence on the course they took. Within each bottle was 

 a paper requesting the trawler or other finder to return it to the 

 experimenter with an exact account of where the bottle had been 

 met with. East of the Wash and Lowestoft 390 bottles were 

 sent forth on their mission at a distance from each other of 

 a quarter of a mile, and of these 221 were recovered in the first 

 year. A second series of 270 were sent forth, and of these 158 

 were recovered in one year. Other similar experiments followed. 

 From the direction taken by these bottles it was proved that 

 a coastal current runs the first half of the year from west and 

 south to east and north along the shores of Vlielaud, Friesland, 

 Holstein, and Denmark, with a velocity of from a mile to two 

 miles a day. This current certainly goes up to Amrom and the 

 Sylt, and probably to the Cattegat. It would seem likely that it 

 is essentially a winter and spring current. Mr. Bidder's general 

 conclusion is that " the course of the drifters is by no means 

 rectilinear and is presumably cycloidal ; the motion being 

 resultant from steady drift and far more rapid tides." 



The following results appear to come out. First, that the 

 waters entering through the Straits of Dover take a northerly 

 direction to about as far north as Lowestoft; that they then 

 sweep across to the eastern portion of the North Sea. On the 

 other hand, the currents coming from the north-west along the 

 Scottish and English coasts are thrown back by the southern 

 streams from the south of Dover, and consequently are swept 

 round and passed northwards on the outer eastern portion of the 

 sea. Thus there would be comparatively little current motion 

 in the centre of the North Sea. 



The Noi'th Sea has long been famous for certain fine and rare 

 MoUusca which are found in its deepest parts, and for very many 

 years this was the only locality known for them, and they were 

 sold for very large sums. At the present time many of them have 

 a range extending northwards to Vardo in East Finmark, while 



