COUNCIL — JULY 1905 — APPEND. F 
Appendix F 
Account of some experiments on Bottom-Trailers 
I have the honour to present to the Internation! Council for the Study of 
the Sea a brief account of some of the preliminary experiments on Bottom 
Trailers on which I entered with their cognizance, with the view of obtaining a 
simple and efficient means for the investigation of the currents at the bottom of 
the North Sea. I regret that my doctor forbids absolutely, that I should prepare 
at present a detailed paper on the subject; but I hope to put it in the hands of 
the Council not later than October. 
I must first make my aknowledgments specially to Dr. Prrrersson for ne 
encouragement and approval, without which these experiments would not have 
been begun; to Dr. Auten for valuable help in the preliminary aquarium experi- 
ments, and still more valuable aid in arranging, with his staff, for the manufacture 
of the trailing bottles to the specification; and to Mr. Garstane and his assistant 
Naturalists and the staff of the “Huxley” for their aid in the proper placing of 
the bottles in the sea. 
On November 15 1904, in lat. 52° 15’ N, long. 3°0’E, I dropped in from 
the “Huxley” 390 bottles, weighted so as to trail on the ground a wire lifting 
them two feet from the bottom. 1 dropped them about 10 metres apart in a 
straight line of nearly 4 kilometres, in order of their numbers from WSW to ENE. 
The spot chosen is about halfway between Lowestoft and Scheveningen, and in ‚ine 
centre of a large trawling-area. 
Up to July 6! cards have been returned from 175 of these bottles. (I 
give one shilling reward on each card.) — 
During the first two months 92 cards were received, the bottles having heen 
picked up, for the most part, within 20 miles of where they were put in. For 
the first month, while some were drifting in a WNW (magnetic) direction towards 
the English shores, the majority indicated a current going northerly (N by W to 
NNE), eight of the fastest bottles showing in this direction a mile a day for from 
17 to 27 days. About the middle of December the great gales seem to have driven a 
large number to the SW very rapidly; but of the first 60 bottles more than 
half had been taken between NNE and WNW of the point where they were put in. 
The northerly current at first indicated, seems to be fully confirmed by the 
later bottles. Of the last 69 recorded (omitting cards not properly filled up) only 
4 have been found to the southward, and 14 in the neigbourhood of the point 
