CURRENTS OF THE ATLANTIC 79 



circuit is performed by one bottle or piecemeal by a number of 

 bottles (p. 51). 



4. The traverse from the West Indies and from the south-east 

 coasts of North America to the shores of Europe in the Gulf Stream 

 drift is then considered. The fan-shaped distribution of bottle- 

 drift from the New World is then remarked, since it may be stranded 

 anywhere on the east side of the North Atlantic between the North 

 Cape of Norway and the coast of Morocco, reaching even the Canary 

 Islands. From the results of experiments covering a long period of 

 years it is inferred that drift may reach any given locality on the 

 European coasts from all latitudes on the American side of the North 

 Atlantic between the tropics and the sub-Arctic regions. Thus, 

 bottle-drift is stranded on the Irish coasts from all latitudes between 

 the Caribbean Sea and Davis Strait. The results of the extensive 

 researches conducted with specially devised floats by the Prince of 

 Monaco in the north-east Atlantic are here utilised (pp. 49-56). 



5. Having shown that bottles are carried across the North Atlantic 

 to Europe from the West Indies in the Gulf Stream drift, the requisite 

 data are adduced to demonstrate that they can be returned from 

 European waters to the New World in the tropical latitudes of the 

 same ocean by the North Equatorial Current. The facts indicate 

 that from any locality in the Eastern Atlantic between the vicinity 

 of the Irish coast and that of the Cape Verde Group bottles can be 

 transported to any part of the West Indian region north of Barbados. 

 A few of them finally reach the east coast of Florida after traversing 

 the Lesser Antilles and crossing the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of 

 Mexico. This track must have been followed by a bottle that, after 

 being cast over to the westward of the Cape Verde Islands, was 

 recovered thirty-four months later on the Irish coast (pp. 56-59). 



6. After a short reference to the Guinea Current (p. 59), the 

 next point of importance touched upon is the passage of bottles 

 across the tropical Atlantic in the Main Equatorial Current from the 

 Gulf of Guinea to the coast of Brazil. Guided by the bottle-drift 

 data, the writer adopts the view that the two equatorial currents 

 that approach the Brazilian coast north and south of Cape St. Roque 

 are distinct in their origin, their course, and their destination; and 

 he distinguishes them by the names, frequently used by other writers, 

 of the Main and the South Equatorial Currents (pp. 60). 



7. It is shown that whilst the mass of the bottle-drift of the North 

 Equatorial Current strikes the West Indian region north of Barbados, 

 most of that of the Main Equatorial Current enters the region in 

 the Trinidad waters to the south of that island. Of a hundred bottles 

 thrown into the last-named current between North Brazil and St. 

 Paul's Rocks nearly forty would be carried swiftly into the Caribbean 

 Sea, to be distributed in most cases around its shores ; but sixteen of 

 them would pass through the Straits of Yucatan into the Gulf of 

 Mexico, and of these five would reach the Florida seas. Only a few 

 of them would take the shorter route by the subsidiary Antillean 

 Stream that flows east of the Lesser Antilles to the Bahamas 

 (pp. 60-62). 



8. The indications of bottle-drift are then used to elucidate the 



