CURRENTS OF THE ATLANTIC 51 



after crossing the 20th meridian of west longitude, a drift probably 

 of at least 1500 miles, the most northerly and southerly casks were 

 nine or ten degrees of latitude apart. 



The Circulatory Movement of the Surface-waters of the 

 North Atlantic. — Broadly viewed, to adopt the standpoint of the 

 Prince of Monaco, this movement has its centre somewhat to the 

 south-west of the Azores. The circumferential waters, after skirting 

 the eastern shores of North America, cross the ocean to the shores of 

 Europe, and then bending south along the African coast, curve west 

 in the vicinity of the Cape Verde Islands and follow the line of the 

 North Equatorial Current to the West Indian region. Between the 

 tracks involved in a very long circuit at the circumference of the 

 movement and a very short one around its centre several inter- 

 mediate tracks are possible for drift. 



With these preliminary remarks I will at once proceed to deal with 

 the evidence of the drifting bottle, and it may be here said that it is 

 with the long outer circuit of the North Atlantic that the tracks of 

 the bottles laid down in the American and German charts are mainly 

 concerned. They represent the course followed by West Indian 

 drift in reaching Europe, and the course that would be afterwards 

 pursued by the same drift in returning to the West Indian region, 

 or by European and West African drift in reaching the New World. 

 A large segment of this circuit did not come within the area covered 

 by the Prince of Monaco's investigations, namely, that lying between 

 the West Indies and a line uniting Newfoundland with the Azores. 

 It is here that the materials supplied by the American charts are 

 most valuable. 



Whether the circuit is accomplished by the same bottle or by 

 different bottles the indications are the same. Even if it cannot 

 often be absolutely demonstrated by one example (see Note 15 of the 

 Appendix), the circuit of the North Atlantic can be illustrated in 

 piecemeal fashion by the records of two or three examples. Leaving 

 the warm waters of the West Indian seas, the drifting bottle would 

 be carried swiftly by the Gulf Stream through the Straits of Florida, 

 whence it would be borne northward past Cape Hatteras to the 

 parallels of 40° to 45° south of Cape Race. Then, coursing eastward, 

 it would, on approaching the 40th meridian of west longitude, come 

 to a parting of the tracks. Whilst the great bulk of the drift would 

 continue its easterly course towards the shores of Europe, a portion 

 would be deflected south to the Azores. Much of this would be 

 stranded on these islands, but much also would traverse the group, 

 and after passing well to the westward of the Canaries would come 

 within the influence of the North Equatorial Current, ultimately 

 reaching the Bahamas or the Florida coasts, or even the Bermudas. 

 But our interest lies with the fate of the great mass of the drift. 

 Continuing its easterly course, but with a northerly trend, most of 

 it would be spread out fanwise and would be distributed over the 

 whole length of the western shores of Europe from the North Cape 

 to Cape St. Vincent, even reaching Morocco. Yet a small portion of 

 it would keep to the open ocean. Carried south in the Portuguese 

 Current, it would leave samples of its materials on the beaches of 



