302 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



dividual drifts as laid down upon the chart, do not necessarily represent 

 the actual surface currents of the ocean, but the resultant effect of 

 all the forces to which the bottle was exposed during its drift." 



The bottle-drifts of the Indian Ocean are grouped by Schott into 

 (a) those of the region of the monsoon currents, that is, north of 

 5°-10° S. lat. ; (b) those of the belt of the 1 South-east Trade between 

 10° and 30° S. ; (c) and those of the region of the Roaring Forties 

 or " braven Westwinde." It would appear from his chart and his 

 remarks (pp. 20-22) that the northern part of the Malayan region 

 is more likely to receive drift from the westward than to distribute 

 it in that direction. Thus we should expect to find drift on the 

 beaches of the west side of Sumatra and of the Malay Peninsula 

 from Southern India and Ceylon and from the shores of the Arabian 

 Sea. On the other hand, the bottle-drift data also indicate that 

 drift may at times be carried from the west coast of Sumatra to the 

 Maldives and even to the shores of Equatorial Africa. This direct 

 communication between North-west Malaya and the African east 

 coast under the equator is exemplified by a bottle thrown over in 

 about lat. 2° N. some 400 miles west of Sumatra, which was recovered 

 160 days afterwards under the equator on the East African coast, 

 having crossed the Indian Ocean at a minimum rate of 18-7 miles 

 a day, the distance covered being about 3000 miles (Schott, p. 21, 

 quoted from the American Pilot Chart for June 1895). 



In the case of Southern Malaya, meaning thereby the islands east 

 of Java that face Australia, there would be a regular supply of drift 

 to the East African coasts through the South Equatorial or South- 

 east Trade Current. This is illustrated in part by the track of a 

 bottle which was cast over about mid-way between the island of 

 Sumbawa and North-west Australia in about 15° S. and long. 116° E. 

 and was recovered in the Chagos Islands (Schott, Table 5, No. 23). 

 Its track represents the first half of the passage taken by drift in 

 crossing the Indian Ocean from the seas between the Malayan 

 Islands and North-west Australia. The course followed by the 

 bottle lies close to Keeling Atoll, and thus enables us to appeal to 

 a witness who particularly interested himself in these matters during 

 his sojourn in this part of the world, viz. Mr. Wood- Jones. As a 

 spectator of the actual start in these Malayo-Australian waters of 

 Malayan drift on its passage across the Indian Ocean to Equatorial 

 Africa he thus writes in his Coral and Atolls (p. 295) : " During a 

 stay of a fortnight in October 1906, in a ship lying on cable ground 

 some twenty miles south of Sumbawa, the current flowed constantly 

 westward at the rate of about one and a half knots ; and the waters 

 were carrying all sorts of drift wrack in their stream." 



But Wood- Jones aids us still further in this matter. By adding 

 experiment to observation he enables us to complete the traverse 

 across the Indian Ocean which was performed in part by the bottle 

 above alluded to. He had especially in his mind the subject of the 

 transport in the South-east Trade Current of Malayan drift, whether 

 plant or animal, to Keeling Atoll; and, as already indicated, the 

 track of thebottlecast over be ween Sumbawa and North-west Australia 

 is laid down by Schott as passing close to Keeling Atoll on the way 



