180 
THREE CRUISES OF THE / BLAKE.” 
Eminently characteristic of the Gulf Stream, and wherever its 
influence extends, Porpite (Fig. 86), Velelle, Physalie (Fig. 
87), and floating barnacles (Fig. 88) have been found. 
In 
Fig. 86.— Porpita. $. 
fact, these surface animals are excellent guides to the course of 
the current of the Gulf Stream, — natural current bottles, as it 
were.! 
1 During the voyage of the * Chal- 
lenger," observations were made addi- 
tional to those mentioned by Lyell upon 
the transportation of seeds by fruit-pi- 
geons ; and in the Botany of the * Chal- 
lenger ” Expedition (Chall. Ex., Bot., 
Part IIL, p. 277 et seq., 1885), there is 
an interesting Appendix on the dispersal 
of plants by oceanie currents and birds. 
They are thrown up along the whole length of the 
Robert Brown, Chamisso, Darwin, and the 
French botanists attached to the * Ura- 
nie," paid eonsiderable attention to the 
plants they found seattered on the shores 
of many of the islands in the Pacific. 
Moseley describes the masses of drift- 
wood met with by the * Challenger? off 
New Guinea, about seventy-five miles 
northeast of Point d'Urville. I have my- 
