CURRENT PAPERS. 235 



boundary between that colony and Queensland. There is of 

 course no evidence to show how it got there, for plotting on the 

 chart it has been assumed that it followed the usual easterly drift 

 in Lat. 46° S. to the longitude of Tasmania, and then took a 

 northerly course, the shortest to the landing place which could be 

 done in the time, at the rate of 5*4 miles per day. If, however, 

 it took the alternative course, which I think the more probable, 

 it travelled up the eastern side of Tasman sea and came on shore 

 by the equatorial current past New Caledonia. The distance on 

 this course being a thousand miles longer, and the daily rate of 

 7*5 miles per day ; but during its drift in Lat. 46° S. it may, like 

 other papers of this list, have travelled from nine to twelve miles 

 per day, and the drift in Tasman sea would accord with those 

 made by other papers in Tasman Sea. 



It has been found impossible to plot the tracks of all the papers 

 even with a much enlarged chart of Australia and New Zealand, 

 because so many are found on the coast between Adelaide and 

 Melbourne. 



May I ask those who are so steadily assisting in this work to 

 send me a tabular statement of the number of papers thrown over 

 each month or voyage. From these returns it would be possible 

 to get a percentage of the papers that came back to me. 



