CURRENTS OF THE ATLANTIC 



61 



Current, and are subsequently dispersed over the shores of the 

 Caribbean Sea and of the Gulf of Mexico, reaching in some cases the 

 coasts of Florida. 



As indicated by the data at my disposal, the general distribution 

 of the bottle-drift of the Main Equatorial Current in the tropics of 

 the New World is as follows — 



Places of Recovery oe Sixty Bottles cast Overboard in 

 the Main Equatorial Current between the Coast of 

 North Brazil and the Vicinity of St. Paul's Rocks 



{The data are obtained from Schott's memoir in three-fourths of the cases and from 

 the American charts for the rest) 



The Guianas ...... 5 per cent. 



Trinidad mainly, but including also Tobago 



and the neighbouring coast of Venezuela .31 ,, 

 The Lesser Antilles (chiefly in the southern 



islands) 26 



The Greater Antilles (south coasts of Hispaniola, 



Cuba, and Jamaica, including the off-lying 



Cayman Islands . . . . .13 ,, 



The Bahamas . . . . . . 2 „ 



The coasts of Central America (Nicaragua and 



Honduras) . . . . . . 7 ,, 



The Gulf of Mexico (chiefly on the western 



shores) . . . . . . . 11 ,, 



The coasts of Florida . . . . . 5 ,, 



100 



The convergence of the drift towards the limited region comprised 

 by Trinidad and its vicinity is conspicuous. But the materials 

 stranded in this locality are probably equalled in amount by those 

 that are carried swiftly past this region into the Caribbean Sea 

 through the Trinidad and Grenada passage to be thrown up ulti- 

 mately on the south coasts of Hispaniola, Cuba and Jamaica, on the 

 shores of Nicaragua and Honduras, on the western borders of the 

 Gulf of Mexico, and on the coasts of the Florida seas. If we separate 

 the bottles at their starting-place into two groups, those belonging 

 to the St. Paul's Rocks area and those nearer the coast of North 

 Brazil, we find that the concentration on Trinidad and its vicinity 

 is least marked in the case of the bottles approaching from the 

 vicinity of St. Paul's Rocks, the proportion reaching Trinidad from 

 this region of the Atlantic being only about 20 per cent., as compared 

 with nearly 40 per cent, in the case of those carried past the shores 

 of North Brazil. 



But although the great mass of the stream of the Main Equatorial 

 Current passes into the Caribbean Sea, there is a subsidiary branch 

 which, after skirting the eastern and northern side of the Lesser 

 Antilles, unites with the North Equatorial Current and ultimately 



