CURRENT-CONNECTIONS IN S. HEMISPHERE 301 



Its opposite shores display the same reciprocity in the exchange 

 of drift that is exhibited t>y South America. Whilst on the west 

 the tropical borders would distribute drift to the New World through 

 the agencies of the equatorial currents, those on the east would be 

 the recipients of drift from tropical North-west Australia and from 

 Malaya. So also the western extra-tropical coasts would receive 

 drift from high latitudes in South America, and the corresponding 

 eastern coasts would distribute it to the southern borders of Australia. 



The part taken by the equatorial currents of the Atlantic in trans- 

 porting drift to America is dealt with elsewhere (Chapter III.). We 

 are here principally concerned with the materials transported from 

 the Gulf of Guinea to the coast of Brazil by the Main Equatorial 

 Current, the time occupied in the passage being only three months. 

 The western shores of South Africa would receive drift from extra- 

 tropical South America that had been brought within the influence 

 of the South Atlantic Connecting Current by the Brazilian Stream 

 from the north and by the Antarctic Current from the Horn. The 

 course taken would be that followed by a bottle dropped overboard 

 in the middle of the South Atlantic in about lat. 42° S. and long. 

 32° W., which was stranded near the Cape of Good Hope (Schott, 

 Table 4, No. 97). The indications of bottle-drift data are that drift 

 could not be carried direct from the tropics of the New W T orld to 

 those of West Africa in the Counter Equatorial Current, except 

 under exceptional circumstances (Chapter III.). 



To the eastern coasts of Africa, from the equator southward, 

 tropical drift would be brought across the Indian Ocean by the 

 South Equatorial Current from Malaya and North-west Australia; 

 and its destination on the African coast would depend on whether 

 it took the direct course north of Madagascar, or passed south to 

 get within the influence of the Mozambique and Agulhas Current. 

 It is also highly probable that the West Australian Current, which 

 represents the northern offshoot of the West Wind Drift Current 

 of the Roaring Forties, would after striking the south-west corner 

 of Australia carry with it not only West Australian drift-materials, 

 but also South African drift, which, brought by it within the influence 

 of the South Equatorial Current, would be ultimately returned to 

 the continent from which it hailed. It is even possible that Fuegian 

 drift may be carried into the West Australian Current and thence 

 into the Equatorial Current, finally reaching tropical East Africa 

 in the company of South African, Australian, and Malayan drift. 

 During its traverse of the Indian Ocean this equatorial stream would 

 deposit samples of its gatherings from four continents on Keeling 

 Atoll, the Chagos Islands, the Seychelles, the Mascarene Islands, 

 and Madagascar. 



Let us look a little more closely into the play of the currents in 

 the Indian Ocean from the equator southward, as exemplified by the 

 tale of the drifting bottle. It is suggestively illustrated in Schott's 

 maps and in his text; and by adding a few other data we shall 

 obtain a fair representation of the work of the currents in distributing 

 drift in these seas. However, to quote from the American bottle- 

 drift charts for the North Atlantic, " it should be noted that the in- 



