294 CORAL AND ATOLLS 



Many bottles went to sea, being launched a few at a time, 

 during a period of two months. I started the experiment in 

 November 1905, and by June 1906, a reply had come to 

 hand. It was sent by Lieut. G. Piazza, the Resident of Brava, 

 Italian Somaliland, and it told that a bottle, launched on 

 November 15, 1905, had been found at a place called Ras 

 Day, at Brava (1° 06' 8'' N. ; 44° 01' 52'' E.), on May 27, 

 1906. My little note came back again none the worse for its 

 sea travel of over three thousand miles. No other reply 

 came in for more than a year, and then, much to my surprise, 

 the Resident of Brava sent me another letter telling me that 

 another bottle had been found, in exactly the same spot as 

 the last, on July 11, 1907 ; he again enclosed my note, and 

 strangely enough it bore the same date — November 15, 1905 

 - — as the first: I was glad to notice that my kind correspon- 

 dent had meanwhile ceased to be Lieutenant, and was now 

 Captain, Piazza. 



No other messages ever came back, and considering the 

 chances of disaster that are likely to overtake a floating 

 bottle — the chances of it breaking in its landing, and the 

 chances of its going ashore where it would not be noticed — 

 it is very wonderful that two ever did survive a passage of 

 almost the whole breadth of the Indian Ocean. 



It is a very wonderful thing that, after so long a journey, 

 two of the bottles should have arrived at the very same point 

 on the coast of Africa ; and I would dearly love to examine 

 the coast-line of Italian Somaliland, in the region of Ras Day, 

 to see if there was not some waif that had succeeded in making 

 a new home there, and that could tell clearly of a Malayan or 

 an Australian origin. I do not doubt that some such colonist 

 would certainly be found : — some typical Asiatic or Australian 

 intruder on the African fauna and flora. A sea immersion of 

 one hundred and ninety days would still leave seeds fertile 

 and ready to start growth in a new home, and it is possible 

 that some animal waifs might also survive the passage. 



The drift that strikes the coast of Africa turns south, and 

 •flows down the eastern shores of the continent ; and it would 



