80 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



part that would be taken by the South Equatorial Current and its 

 southward extension, the Brazilian Current, in the distribution of 

 seed-drift in the South Atlantic; and the same data are employed 

 to illustrate the current-connections of this ocean with the Indian 

 and Pacific Oceans. It is shown that bottle-drift can pass from 

 the Indian Ocean into the South Atlantic round the Cape and may 

 even reach Brazil, and that it can pass into the same ocean from the 

 South Pacific round Cape Horn (pp. 62-63). 



9. The drifting rate of bottles in crossing the Atlantic is then 

 treated; and after showing how the disturbing elements connected 

 with the delay in their recovery may be largely eliminated, a table 

 of general results is given (p. 66). It is inferred that the average 

 time occupied in the passage from the West Indian region to Europe 

 would be about fourteen months at a daily rate of about nine miles, 

 and it is remarked that the average speed during different stages 

 of the traverse is not much less. The fact that much slower rates 

 are indicated by one of the series of the Prince of Monaco's observa- 

 tions in the North-east Atlantic is explained (p. 68). The return 

 passage from European waters to the West Indies usually covers a 

 period of sixteen to seventeen months. But the rate varies in 

 different parts of the traverse. In the passage south to the vicinity 

 of the Cape Verde Islands it would be only four or five miles a day ; 

 whilst in the trans-oceanic passage in the North Equatorial Current 

 it would be nearly thirteen miles (p. 68). 



10. A much greater velocity is attained by bottle-drift in the 

 swift stream of the Main Equatorial Current — namely, an average 

 daily speed of thirty miles from the Gulf of Guinea to Brazil 

 and of forty miles from off the Amazon estuary to Trinidad. About 

 twelve weeks would generally be occupied in the trans-oceanic 

 passage from the Gulf of Guinea to Brazil (p. 70). The data furnished 

 by bottle-drift indicate that Amazon drift, crossing the Caribbean 

 Sea and the Gulf of Mexico and following the Gulf Stream route, 

 would arrive in European waters in about twenty months (p. 70). 

 The average rate of bottle-drift in the Brazil Current does not exceed 

 ten miles a day (p. 71). It is concluded that the complete circuit 

 of the North Atlantic (from the Florida seas by the route of the 

 Gulf Stream, the North Equatorial Current, the Caribbean Sea, and 

 the Gulf of Mexico) would be accomplished in an average period of 

 just three years (p. 72). The difficulties in demonstrating the 

 completion of the circuit by the same bottle are very great. But 

 it has been almost accomplished by derelicts. The nearest approach 

 to a complete record is that of the bottle which was picked up on 

 the west coast of Ireland thirty-four months after it had been cast 

 into the sea to the westward of the Cape Verde Group (p. 72). 



11. Although the indications of the bottle-drift data open up 

 great possibilities for the distribution of seed-drift in the North and 

 South Atlantic, each ocean possessing its own independent circulatory 

 system of currents, it must often happen that the transport of floating 

 seeds from tropical to temperate latitudes, and vice versa, has no 

 effective value. Whilst the North Equatorial Current brings to the 

 West Indies the sweepings of the Atlantic seaboard of North America, 



