40 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



our last exponent of the sceptical attitude towai-ds the Gulf Stream or ocean 

 current theory. Wien travelling in the Hebrides in 1772 he was presented 

 in the Island of Islay wnth a set of Molucco Beans found stranded on the 

 shore there. Having mentioned the general belief that the seeds were carried 

 by currents from the West Indies, he proceeds : — " I was for resolving the 

 phenomena into shipwrecks, and supposing that they might have been flung 

 on these coasts out of some unhappy vessels, but this solution of mine is 

 absolutely denied."' 



It might be further urged in favour of the human agency hypothesis that 

 no one has ever seen these drift seeds in mid-ocean, rari nantcs in <jurgite 

 vasto, on their 4,000 miles voyage across the Atlantic from the western tropics 

 to the shores of Europe, and that scientific authorities have maintained 

 that the results of oceanic investigations carried on of late years show that 

 the Gulf Stream, so far from washing the European shores, ceases to be 

 recognizable as a distinct current iu mid-Atlantic at about 30° of west 

 longitude. 



This is the case for human agency put as strongly as possible. What are 

 ita weak points, and what is the evidence in favour of the competing oceanic 

 hypothesis ? first of all it should be noted tliat although some of the tropical 

 seeds found in our Irish drift were formerly used in medicine or in the arts, 

 they have long since ceased to be so used, and consequently are not now to 

 be found on board sliip in quantity as articles of merchandise. And even 

 were tliey so used at present, the frequency of their occurrence, not only on 

 our Atlantic beaches, but over a wide stretch of the western shores of Europe, 

 could not reasonably be attributed to such an occasional cause as shipwreck. 

 The seeds have been found stranded all along the Norwegian coast up to the 

 North Cape. Some, indeed, have made their way into the Arctic regions, 

 remote from any trade routes. For instance. Mack in his circumnavigation 

 of Nova Zembla in 1871 found a bean of EiUa^la scandeiis off the north-west 

 coast in north latitude 76' 10', on one of the islands known to the Norwegian 

 sealers and whalers as the Gulf Stream Islands (Golfstromsoarna).* Torrell, 

 during the Swedish Polar Expedition of 1861, found another Ijcan of the 

 same species on the north coast of Spitzbei-gen,' and Nathorst in 1871 found 

 a seed of &uUnndina Bon<iuc stranded at Advent Bay on the west coast of 

 the same island.' Even the remotest oceanic islands receive these tropical 



' " A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides." 4th ed. Dublin, 1775, p. 232. 

 ' " Petcrraann's Mittheilungen," 1872, p. 375. 



' " Oin Drifveden ia Norra lahafret," af Fredik Ingvarson. Kongl. Svonska 

 Vctensk. Handl. Band 37. 

 'Ibid. 



