viii LITTORAL PLANTS AND CURRENTS OF THE PACIFIC 73 



blown off the south coast of Japan in a typhoon, anchored, after 

 ten or eleven months at sea, in December, 1832, near Waialea in 

 Oahu, the view taken of its course being that after drifting along 

 in the Japan Current it came within the range of the south-west 

 current that carries pine timber to Hawaii from the West Coast of 

 America. 



The portion of the Northern Equatorial Current that strikes 

 the Hawaiian Group during the greater part of the year is no 

 doubt a south-westerly deflection of the Japan Current from the 

 American West Coast ; and it would be impossible to find any 

 tropical drift mingled with the pine logs stranded on the islands 

 during that period. However, in the winter months, centering in 

 January, the Japan Current flows down the West Coast of America 

 to about the latitude of Cape Corrientes on the coast of Mexico, 

 before being deflected westward. Here it meets with a portion of 

 the Peruvian Current, and both flow westward, the united stream 

 striking probably only the southernmost islands of the Hawaiian 

 Group. It is at this season alone that there would be any 

 likelihood of drift from tropical America being stranded on the 

 Hawaiian beaches, and it is quite possible that at such a time the 

 Northern Equatorial Current may carry intermingled in its stream 

 pine logs from Oregon and seed-drift from Panama. 



I am not inclined to attach any value except in the Western 

 Pacific to the agency of the Equatorial Counter-Current in trans- 

 porting seeds and fruits over the Pacific. It presents seemingly 

 the only opportunity of the transportal of the seeds and fruits of 

 Asiatic littoral plants to America ; but if at all effective in this 

 way, it would have endowed the littoral flora of the western shores 

 of tropical America with many of the trees so characteristic of the 

 coral islands of the Pacific. In this sense, it has failed completely 

 as an effective agency in plant-dispersal ; and judging by results 

 we may, I think, dismiss it from our consideration. However, 

 Dr. Hillebrand (p. xv.) assumes that during the prevalence of 

 south-westerly gales in winter in the Hawaiian Islands, the 

 Equatorial Counter-Currrent would be pushed northward so as 

 to mingle to the east of the group with the North Equatorial 

 Current. In this manner it is supposed that seed-drift brought 

 direct from the Asiatic side of the Pacific would be stranded on 

 these islands. This appears to me to be most improbable, since 

 some ten or twelve degrees of latitude usually intervene between 

 the Hawaiian Group and the Equatorial Counter-Current {see 

 Admiralty Sailing Directions, Pacific Islands, 1900, II., 31, and the 



