62 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



reaches the Bahamas, the north coasts of the Greater Antilles, the 

 Florida Strait and the Bermudas. This is the so-called " Antillean 

 Stream " to which Dr. Schott particularly refers (p. 13). About 

 6 per cent, of the bottles dealt with in the above tabulated results 

 represent the part played by this subsidiary current in distributing 

 the drift brought by the Main Equatorial Stream to the West Indian 

 region. They are those that are stranded on the northernmost islands 

 of the Lesser Antilles, on the north coasts of Porto Rico and Hispa- 

 niola, and on the off-lying Bahamas. An interesting example is 

 afforded in the case of bottle No. 363 in Schott's memoir (p. 13 and 

 map ii.). It was dropped into the sea about half-way between Cape 

 St. Roque and St. Paul's Rocks, and was recovered on Rum Cay in 

 the Bahamas five and a half months afterwards, having accomplished 

 the passage of 3078 miles at a minimum daily rate of 18*2 miles. 

 Another interesting illustration is afforded by a bottle which, after 

 being thrown over about 200 miles off the mouths of the Amazon in 

 2° 36' N. and 47° 6' W., was picked up near St. Thomas in 18° 27' N. 

 and 64° 49' W. twenty-eight days afterwards, having been carried 

 1400 miles at a minimum rate of fifty miles a day (U.S. Chart, North 

 Atlantic, May 1909, No. 80). The mingling of the drift of the 

 North and Main Equatorial Currents in the region between the 

 Bahamas and the Greater Antilles is a point of great interest in the 

 distribution of seeds by currents. 



The South Equatorial and the Brazil Currents. — Being, as 

 I have shown above, the continuation of the South Equatorial 

 Current that crosses the South Atlantic about the latitude of St. 

 Helena, the Brazil Current proceeds southward, following the trend 

 of the coast, part of its waters reaching the estuary of La Plata, the 

 greater portion, however, being deflected eastward between the 30th 

 and 35th parallels, where they join the South Atlantic Connecting 

 Current that runs eastward to the South African coast. In this way 

 it is possible for drift to make a complete circuit of the South Atlantic, 

 since on approaching the South African coast the materials not 

 stranded would be borne northward in the South African Current, 

 those in the inshore waters ultimately getting into the Main Equa- 

 torial Current, and those in the off-shore waters coming within the 

 influence of the South Equatorial Current. The bottle-drift data at 

 my disposal for this ocean are scanty, but they illustrate the circular 

 play of the currents, and they show that whilst extra-tropical South 

 Africa may supply drift to tropical Brazil, it may receive drift from 

 the same region. One of the most interesting records of bottle-drift 

 ever published in this connection is concerned with a bottle that was 

 thrown into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Natal and was recovered 

 on the shores of Brazil in lat. 17° 30' S. The bottle just mentioned 

 must have doubled the Cape, and in its subsequent transport by the 

 South African and South Equatorial Currents we have an illustration 

 of the passage of drift from extra-tropical South Africa to tropical 

 Brazil (further details of this remarkable drift are given a page or 

 two later). 



But to understand how tropical Brazil may in its turn supply 

 drift to South Africa it will be necessary to examine the working of 



