CURRENTS OF THE ATLANTIC 65 



trate the critical value of the data supplied by a number of bottles 

 cast into the sea at the same place and at the same time. 



Five Bottles put Overboard together prom the s.s. "Cherokee" about a 



HUNDRED MILES TO THE NORTH OF CAPE HaTTERAS ON DECEMBER 21, 1905 



(Results taken from the North Atlantic Pilot Chart for December 1908, published 

 by the U.S. Hydrographic Office.) 



Place of Recovery 



Interval in Days 



Total Drift in 

 Nautical Miles 



Average Drift in 

 Miles per Day 



Bermuda . . . . . 



103 



520 



5-0 





168 



520 



3-1 



West coast of Scotland 









(56°30'N.) . . . . 



390 



3040 



7-8 



Shetland Islands 



466 



3210 



6-9 



Norway, near the North 









Cape in lat. 70° 20' N., 









long. 22° 58' E. . . 



416 



4250 



10-2 



Here it is evident that the three bottles with the longest drifts 

 followed the same track until near the Scottish coast, and that the 

 one recovered in the north of Norway must have been found soon 

 after it had been stranded. 



The Drifting Rates of Bottles across the Atlantic. — In the 

 following table (p. 66) I have elaborated most of the data at my dis- 

 posal that concern the drifting rates of bottles across the North and 

 the Equatorial Atlantic. The subsequent remarks relate to the 

 different passages, beginning with the traverse from the Florida 

 Strait and the neighbouring West Indian waters to the coasts of 

 Europe. These are the most interesting of the bottle-drift records, 

 since Europe is here brought into touch with a locality that not only 

 receives drift from the entire West Indian region, but is also the 

 recipient of drift transported by the North and Main Equatorial 

 Currents from tropical Africa, as well as from the coasts of the 

 Guianas and North Brazil. The traverse of the ocean from the 

 European and African side to the New World is then dealt with, and 

 the discussion ends with some general conclusions relating to the 

 average periods taken by bottle-drift in performing the various 

 passages and traverses of this ocean. 



The Drift-rates from the West Indies to the Coasts of 

 Europe. — The stages in this traverse of the North Atlantic are indi- 

 cated in the table given on p. 66, and it has already been established 

 in a previous table that quite four-fifths of the bottles are stranded 

 on the Scottish, Irish, English and French coasts. Whilst the 

 shortest passage was performed in about eleven months, the average 

 period was about fourteen months. The quickest drift was that of 

 a bottle which reached the Irish coast from off the north coast of 

 Hispaniola in 337 days, a passage of 4140 miles (U.S. Pilot Chart, 

 N. Atlantic, May 1909). It seems unlikely that the traverse from 

 off Cape Hatteras could be often accomplished by a bottle in less 



F 



