CURRENTS OF THE ATLANTIC 47 



in the same journal for 1843. These results, where suitable, have 

 been utilised by me. However, most of my materials have been 

 supplied from the results gathered in recent years by the United 

 States Hydrographic Office in Washington and by the Deutsche 

 Seewarte in Hamburg. The first were published on the backs of 

 the North Atlantic Pilot Charts, while the second were embodied in 

 Dr. Schott's memoir Die Flaschenposten der Dzutschen Seewarte , 

 1897. By far the most extensive and systematic inquiry ever made 

 in this direction was that conducted by Albert, Prince of Monaco, 

 from 1885 to 1887. Floats, specially devised, were employed; but 

 the mode of presentment of his results and the absence of his chart 

 have stood in the way of my employing them as much as I could 

 have wished. As will be seen from the following pages, however, 

 they have proved of great value. 



Whilst my facts for the North Atlantic are mainly derived from 

 the American Pilot Charts and for the South Atlantic from Dr. 

 Schott's work, those for the equatorial seas are chiefly derived from 

 both these sources and to a less degree from the Nautical Magazine. 

 With great courtesy the U.S. Hydrographic Office supplied me 

 with a set of four bottle-drift charts, covering the eight months 

 from October to May 1900-8, and affording the data and tracks 

 for about 650 bottles. Dr. Schott, whilst preparing his memoir, 

 had at his disposal the materials for 643 bottle-drifts in the Atlantic, 

 Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Of these 452 are concerned with the 

 North Atlantic and 102 with the South Atlantic, forty-three with 

 the Indian Ocean, and forty-six with the Pacific Ocean. The tracks 

 for most of the Atlantic bottle-drifts are laid down in his charts. 

 Thus in the case of the North Atlantic about three-fourths are thus 

 laid down. The tracks of all those in the Indian and Pacific Oceans 

 are represented in separate charts, and some highly interesting data 

 are given for a few bottles in the belt of the Westerly Winds in high 

 southern latitudes. But the weak point in the memoir is the deficient 

 supply of facts relating to the duration of each drift. In this respect 

 Dr. Schott only samples the subject, referring the reader for the 

 complete data to the Archiv der Seewarte and the Annalen der Hydro- 

 graphie. However, sufficient materials are given in his pages for the 

 elucidation of this part of the inquiry. 



With regard to the Prince of Monaco's investigations during three 

 voyages in the North Atlantic, 1885-7, it may be said that in the 

 first voyage (1885) 169 floats were dropped into the sea to the north- 

 west of Corvo in the Azores. In the second (1886) as many as 510 

 floats were cast over about midway between the Azores and South- 

 western Europe along a line, 450 miles in length, nearly on the 

 meridian 17° 40' W. of Greenwich and between the latitudes of 

 42° 32' and 50° N. In the third voyage 931 floats were thrown over 

 between the Azores and the Banks of Newfoundland and sixty-five 

 to the north of those islands, at average intervals in most cases of 

 1180 metres, along a line 700 miles in length. Out of this total of 

 1675 floats, 226, or 13^ per cent., were recovered. From time to 

 time, between 1885 and 1892, the results were given to the world in 

 the Comptes Rendus hebdomadaires des Sciences. Most of them were 



