202 H. C. EUSSELL. 



No. 5 contains particulars of the drift of the Waikato 

 for 103 days. The number of bottle papers amounted to 

 93, of which five papers thrown into the Indian Ocean, 

 four landed in Africa, and one in Madagascar. It is very 

 noteworthy that at this period the drift of the current 

 papers in Southern Indian Ocean was east by south, while 

 in other cases it is east by north. This feature is impor- 

 tant, as indicating some changes of meteorological con- 

 ditions not otherwise observed. 



No. 6 contains 153 current papers collected in one year, 

 and in this period another ocean comes into the field 

 traversed between Australia and Canada. Valuable as 

 they are for navigation, they suggest the interesting ques- 

 tion — will it be possible to find out by current papers the 

 direction if any, by which the equatorial currents from the 

 Pacific Ocean make their way through Torres and other 

 Straits, through various possible openings into the Indian 

 Ocean ? There the drifts to the west are more rapid than 

 any other place that I am aware of. It seems, therefore, 

 most desirable to get many more current papers afloat 

 between Sydney and Canada. 



In this pamphlet, Capt. J. Mann Hart of the s.s. " Star 

 of Neiv Zealand," we have the first report of a group of 

 icebergs for a long time. The diagram shews a great 

 number of small icebergs and a number of large bergs in 

 55° south and between 130° to 144° east. 



RAPID DRIFT. 



It is noteworthy that amongst the current papers we 

 find the most rapid drift that we have yet discovered : No. 

 858 ; the rate reported being 32'5 miles per day, but the 

 period of drift was only two days. Some caution must be 

 exercised in this drift, errors in the times given, such as 

 often occur in watches might be enough to make this drift 

 appear large when it was not actually so. But there are 



