CURRENTS OF THE ATLANTIC 63 



the Brazilian Current, as exemplified by bottle-drift in the fourth 

 map and on p. 20 of Schott's memoir. It is not a rapid stream, 

 its rate being twelve to twenty miles a day, and in consequence it 

 is liable to a set-back within the tropics during the southern winter 

 owing to the influence of the prevailing South-east Trade. In this 

 manner, no doubt, some of its drift is carried back round Cape 

 St. Roque and mingles with that of the Main Equatorial, an event 

 which actually occurred in the case of some bottles referred to in 

 this memoir. But for this occasional set-back, the current would 

 have a steady flow south. Yet the bottle-drift dealt with by Dr. 

 Schott in this connection only tells part of the story. Though 

 many bottles are cast up on the coasts as far south as Montevideo, 

 we know nothing of those that must have been deflected eastward to 

 be carried across in the South Atlantic Connecting Current to the 

 west coasts of South Africa, where in the great majority of cases 

 they could never be recovered. Their track across the Atlantic 

 would curve south to about the 40th parallel, and would then be 

 represented by that laid down by Dr. Schott in his map for a bottle 

 which, after being cast over in about 41° 30' S. and long. 32° W., 

 was recovered near the Cape of Good Hope. 



The Current-connections of the South Atlantic with the 

 Indian and Pacific Oceans, as Illustrated by Bottle-drift. — 

 This is a matter of importance, since upon it depends the possibility 

 of the intrusion of seed-drift into the South Atlantic from the oceans 

 on either side of it. Taking, first, the connection with the Indian 

 Ocean, Dr. Schott gives the tracks of two bottles that doubled the 

 Capes of Agulhas and Good Hope in their passage westward into the 

 South Atlantic. One of them, after being dropped overboard less 

 than a hundred miles south of Port Elizabeth, was cast up on the 

 west coast of Cape Colony in about lat. 33° S. (maps 4 and 5). The 

 other accomplished a much longer passage. Having been thrown 

 into the sea off the coast of Natal in lat. 29° 24' S. and long. 33° E., 

 it was carried by the Agulhas Current round the southern extreme of 

 the continent, whence it passed into the South African Current and 

 from there into the South Equatorial Current, being ultimately 

 stranded on the coast of Brazil in lat. 17° 30' S. This involved a 

 drift of about 4120 miles, a period of 612 days elapsing between the 

 start and the recovery of the bottle (pp. 19, 27 ; maps iv. and v. ; 

 track 6). 



With regard to the connection between the South Pacific and 

 South Atlantic Oceans round the Horn, the data at my disposal 

 indicate that it occasionally occurs. Most of the bottles dropped off 

 Cape Horn are drifted before the Westerly Winds to Australia — as 

 illustrated by the tracks of four bottles mentioned by Schott and 

 others which are specially dealt with in Chapter XIII. In the same 

 chapter allusion is made to the figurehead of a ship burnt at sea in 

 these latitudes which was also recovered in Australia. In none of 

 these cases did the drifting object double the Horn; but Schott 

 gives the track of a bottle in map vi. which was cast over in about 

 lat. 54° 20' S., less than a hundred miles off the west coast of Tierra 

 del Fuego, and drifted in the Cape Horn Current to the Falkland 



