CURRENT PAPERS. 247 



The longest route made by any of the papers was that of No. 3 

 which starting from a point north of Kerguelen found its way on 

 to the west coast of New Zealand near Wellington, and the next 

 one in length of journey, No. 37, was put into the sea in about 

 the same latitude as No. 3, but instead of finding its way to New 

 Zealand, it went ashore near Cape Northumberland on the coast 

 of Victoria ; obviously something, probably persistent southerly 

 winds made it trend farther north than No. 3. No. 30 is interest- 

 ing as having been picked up in mid-ocean, and instructive in that 

 it was on the point of sinking when it was picked up ; it was then 

 so hampered by the growth of shells, weeds, etc., on the elaborate 

 wooden cradle which had been built round the bottle, that it never 

 could have reached the land. 



South Coast. 

 Taking these long journey south coast current papers, it is 

 interesting to compare their daily rates of progress : — (See Plate 37 .) 

 No. 2 travelled 4*0 miles per day 



» 3 



j) 



12-0 



.-. 27 



3) 



9-5 



„ 30 



33 



6-3 



„ 31 



33 



7-0 



„ 37 



33 



7-0 



Average 



, rate 



7-6 



As these have made their journies at all seasons and in different 

 years, the average rate probably has a real significance, but it is 

 noteworthy that the two farthest south, Nos. 3 and 27 show the 

 greatest daily progress, and it may be observed that No. 30 which 

 had simply an ocean track, and therefore no time lost resting on 

 a beach, before it was found, shows a smaller velocity than any of 

 the others except No. 2 ; No. 40 with only a short route made 

 but 0-5 miles per day, and No. 29 in the same region made five 

 miles per day. 



The East Coast. 

 On the east coast the routes are all much shorter, and as already 

 noted there are a larger number of very short routes not put on 



