58 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



Rico. In the cases of Cuba and Hispaniola they were found in about 

 the same proportions and equally distributed on both the north and 

 south sides of the islands. Those mentioned under Column C were 

 well distributed over the Lesser Antilles north of Barbados and 

 St. Vincent, and, with the exception of one stranded on the Grena- 

 dines, never south of those two islands. Of the remainder it may 

 be said that most of those brought to the shores of Honduras and 

 Nicaragua were found in the former region, that those carried 

 through the Straits of Yucatan into the Gulf of Mexico were either 

 cast up on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana or were hurried along 

 in the Gulf Stream and deposited on the east coast of Florida. 



Taking the bottles starting from the eastern side of the ocean, no 

 consistent discrimination can be made between the groupings of the 

 places of recovery and the starting localities. As far as the data go, 

 they show that almost from every one of the localities bottles may 

 be transported all over the West Indian islands north of Barbados 

 and St. Vincent. South of these two islands is the track by which 

 the drift of the Main Equatorial Current chiefly enters the West 

 Indian region ; whilst on the north, extending as far as the Bahamas, 

 lies the area that receives the drift of the North Equatorial Current. 

 It is with the distribution in the West Indian region of the drift 

 brought across the North Atlantic by this current from latitudes, 

 generally speaking, north of the tenth parallel (N. lat.) that the 

 table above given is exclusively concerned. The concentration of 

 drift at the south-east end of the Bahamas is remarkable. One- 

 fifth of all the bottles brought by the North Equatorial Current to 

 the West Indian islands was stranded on the Turks, Caicos and 

 neighbouring islands. 



The noticeable proportion of bottles stranded on the east coast of 

 Florida, after being thrown over in the vicinity of the Canary and 

 Cape Verde Islands, is a feature of the foregoing table. Those that 

 have crossed the Caribbean Sea, after passing through the islands of 

 the Lesser Antilles, often strike the coasts of Nicaragua and Hon- 

 duras; but almost as many pass to the northward through the 

 Straits of Yucatan, and, if not beached on the north-western shores 

 of the Gulf of Mexico, enter the Florida Straits and are thrown up, 

 as in the case of these bottles, on the east coast of Florida. The 

 story of the bottle-drift cast up at different stages of the long passage 

 from the African side of the North Atlantic to the Florida seas 

 clearly indicates the track across the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of 

 Mexico ; and both the American and German authorities are at one 

 on this point. At the same time it is evident that occasionally the 

 Florida waters may be reached by the shorter route through the 

 Bahamas by the agency of the Antillean Stream, a subject referred 

 to later on in this chapter and in Note 13 of the Appendix. 



It is to be expected that bottles which reach the Florida seas, 

 after drifting across the North Atlantic from the African side, would 

 sometimes be caught in the rapid current of the Gulf Stream in the 

 Florida Straits and be carried northward and eastward to the coasts 

 of Europe. It is brought out in the previous tables (pp. 52, 53) 

 that this is not infrequent with bottles dropped overboard in the 



