642 



Dr. W. B. Carpenter on the 



[June 13, 



fishermen of Constantinople, as well as to European residents, who amuse 

 themselves with the sport. 



Further, I learn from a very careful observer, that at a time when the 

 surface-current in the Dardanelles, urged by a S.W. wind, was setting 

 inwards, as described by Captain Spratt, he noted that the sw6-surface- 

 movement, indicated by the direction of the water-weeds, was still out- 

 wards ; thus showing how small must be the quantity of iEgean water 

 carried into the Black Sea by this agency.] 



174. Gibraltar Current. — As the experiments and observations of 

 which I have given the details in the present Report furnish the best reply 

 to Capt. Spratt' s criticisms upon the work of the preceding year, I should 

 have left those criticisms entirely unnoticed, were it not that one of 

 them is founded upon a misconception of the facts of the case, which, in 

 justice to my valued fellow-labourer Capt. Calver, I cannot leave uncor- 

 rected. It will be remembered that in two cases (Station 64) we actually 

 did obtain the evidence, which, on Capt. Spratt's own admission, would be 

 adequate (if valid) to establish the existence of an Under-current ; namely, 

 the movement of the boat from which the " current-drag " was suspended, 

 in a direction opposed to that of the surface-current in which the boat was 

 floating. So determined, however, is Capt. Spratt not to admit the cogency 

 of this evidence, that, in order to invalidate it, he has recourse to the 

 hypothesis that instead of the boat being carried along by the " current- 

 drag," it was the "current-drag" that was carried along by the action of the 

 wind and surface-current on the boat, which he supposes to have been 

 allowed to drift " exposed nearly broadside on to an easterly wind, and 

 therefore following swell." Now the fact was, that the boat was carefully 

 kept by the two men in her with her stern to the wind ; and that the 

 " current-drag " (as was shown by the direction of the line suspending it 

 from the bow of the boat) was always in advance of it ; the action of the 

 wind being so far from sufficient to neutralize that of the surface-current, 

 that the men were obliged occasionally to use their oars to keep the boat 

 sufficiently up to the drag. The whole operation was most carefully 

 watched by Capt. Calver from the deck of the ' Porcupine,' which was 

 kept close to the boat during the entire experiment ; and as he assured me 

 that he considered its result to be most conclusive, and as I reported that 

 result expressly on his authority, I cannot but think that Capt. Spratt was 

 scarcely justified in impugning the validity of the experiment, on no better 

 grounds than a mere surmise suggested by his own unwillingness to accept 

 its result. 



175. Baltic Current. — While professing to disprove the conclusion 

 drawn by Prof. Forchhammer from his observations on the relative Specific 

 Gravities of the upper and under strata of the water in the Baltic Sound, 

 Capt. Spratt altogether ignores the two facts by which the existence of an 

 inward Under-current in that channel has been demonstrated with a com- 



