298 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



record for its distance known from this part of the Pacific. Had 

 this bottle pursued an uninterrupted course, it would probably, 

 after traversing the Solomon and Lousiade Archipelagos, have been 

 stranded on Cape York Peninsula. The last part of the ocean- 

 crossing was effected by four bottles which reached the coasts of 

 South Queensland and those of New South Wales, just across the 

 border, from the region of the Western Pacific comprised between 

 the Fijian and Tongan Groups and Norfolk Island (Schott, p. 24, 

 Chart 6, Nos. 8, 9, 18, 25). 



The evidence afforded by the nine bottle-drifts above dealt with 

 is clear and consistent. All tell the same story and indicate in no 

 doubtful manner the probability of drift seeds from tropical South 

 America reaching the tropical and subtropical shores of Eastern 

 Australia. The extent to which the distribution of littoral plants 

 in these two widely separated areas responds to the influence of the 

 South Equatorial Current will be subsequently noticed. But the 

 east coast of Australia has other possible current- connections which 

 have been before mentioned. It is evident from the data supplied 

 by Russell and Schott that the branch of the West Wind Drift 

 Current which proceeds through Bass Straits on its way towards 

 the North Cape of New Zealand is deflected to the northward and 

 westward, sometimes before and sometimes after passing that head- 

 land; and the bottle- drift tracks indicate that materials washed 

 off the North Cape would be stranded in the vicinity of Brisbane. It 

 would thus appear that the coasts of Queensland would be the recipient 

 of drift from the extreme north of New Zealand. It would also, as 

 shown by the stranding of the bottle from Cape Horn on the Cape 

 York Peninsula, receive Fuegian drift. 



Coming to the southern sea-borders of Australia, we have already 

 referred to the fact that bottle-drift and wreckage from Fuegia, 

 from the Crozets, and from the islands north of Kerguelen may be 

 thrown up on these shores. But the south coasts of Australia may 

 also at times receive drift from South Africa. A bottle cast over 

 about seventy miles south-east of Cape Agulhas was recovered on 

 the coasts of the Great Australian Bight (Schott, Map 5, No. 31). 

 The tropical north-west sea-borders of the island continent have 

 doubtless received many of their littoral plants from the neighbouring 

 Malayan region through the agency of the currents. They would, 

 as is shown on a later page, distribute drift through the South 

 Equatorial Current to the coasts of tropical and extra-tropical 

 East Africa. It is possible that materials would be also received 

 from the branch of the West Wind Drift Current proceeding north 

 from Cape Leeuwin, which is known as the West Australian Current. 

 But from the standpoint of distribution any seed- drift from high 

 latitudes on the Southern Ocean would be ineffective in those warm 

 regions. It is, however, likely that seed-drift from this source 

 would be effective on the coasts of extra-tropical Western Australia, 

 and we have already seen, in the case of the stranding near Fre- 

 mantle of the figurehead of a ship burned at sea between Cape 

 Horn and the Falkland Islands, that drift may reach those shores 

 from the southern extreme of South America. 



