CURRENTS OF THE ATLANTIC 49 



when conspicuous, specially devised floats are used, as with the 

 Prince of Monaco's investigations in the North Atlantic, it may be 

 as much as 13J per cent. Very few bottles are returned from the 

 West African coasts, and the same may be said of those thrown 

 over in high southern latitudes. In the last case the rare recoveries 

 possess a high interest. Thus out of sixty bottles dropped over- 

 board by Dr. G. Neumayer during a voyage in 1864 from Australia 

 to the equatorial Atlantic by Cape Horn, only one was recovered 

 after a lapse of four years, and that was a bottle that was drifted 

 from Cape Horn to South-east Australia (Schott, p. 2). A similar 

 experience is recorded in the London Times for April 17, 1912. Of 

 forty bottles dropped overboard during a voyage in 1908 from 

 London to Melbourne by the Cape of Good Hope, only one record 

 was returned, and that was concerned with a bottle which was 

 washed up on the coast of Chile, after drifting from a position 

 lying some hundreds of miles to the south-west of Cape Leeuwin, 

 Australia. 



The Difficulties connected with the Delay in the Recovery 

 of the Bottles. — These difficulties prove to be not so great as at 

 first they seem to be. The belated " finds " become very evident 

 when one handles numerous data for the same drift-passage ; and at 

 times the records for a set of bottles dropped over at or near the 

 same time display internal evidence of critical value. Thus, if the 

 one that has travelled the longest distance is found first, it is fair to 

 infer, in the case of transatlantic drifts, that the delay in its recovery 

 was relatively short. As explained in a later page, in order to 

 eliminate this disturbing element as much as possible, I have utilised, 

 when estimating the average drifting-rate for a particular traverse, 

 only the records for the bottles with the quickest rates up to 20 or 25 

 per cent, of the total. I have since ascertained that the Prince of 

 Monaco adopted a similar method in determining the mean velocity 

 of the " drifts." When they were numerous, he took the average of 

 the fastest third or fourth. When they were few, he selected the 

 most rapid example. At times the remark of the finder that the 

 bottle appeared to have been stranded at the last tide is very service- 

 able; but the record is particularly valuable when, as occasionally 

 happens, the bottle has been found afloat. 



The Tracks of Bottles thrown Overboard together. — 

 Interesting results are supplied by the American charts in the cases 

 of bottles thrown over together off the eastern coasts of the United 

 States. They may be distributed fanwise, and are then cast ashore 

 on the coasts of Europe in places far removed from each other, or 

 they may be recovered on the European side only a few miles apart. 

 Thus, out of eight bottles thrown together into the sea off Cape 

 Hatteras from the s.s. New York on March 24, 1906, one was found 

 on the coast of Scotland, two on the Irish coast, two near Arcachon 

 on the shores of the Bay of Biscay, one in the Azores, one in the 

 Bermudas, and one on Grand Turk at the southern end of the 

 Bahamas. As an example of bottles drifting in company across 

 the Atlantic, I will take the case specially noted in these charts. 

 From the s.s. Cherokee two bottles were put overboard together near 



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