APPENDIX 



463 



Lisbon; fourteen from the region included in the Madeira, Canary, 

 and Cape Verde Groups; two from mid- Atlantic to the eastward; 

 eight from a few hundred miles N.-E.N.E. of the Turks Islands; 

 three from between Bermuda and the Bahamas; and one from off 

 Cape Hatteras. But this list of localities should be supplemented 

 from the data supplied by bottles that passed between the Turks, 

 Caicos, and Inagua Islands and were recovered on the Bahamas 

 farther west, as well as on the north coast of Cuba. The Bahamian 

 islands receive bottle-drift not only from the localities above named, 

 but also from the eastern side of the Lesser Antilles and from the 

 shores of the Guianas and North Brazil. The Antillean Current, 

 referred to in Chapter III., would be instrumental in this direction, 

 and a good instance is there mentioned of a bottle which was stranded 

 in the middle Bahamas after being thrown into the Main Equatorial 

 Current between St. Paul's Rocks and Cape St. Roque. 



All the bottles that reach the south-eastern Bahamas from the 

 eastern side of the North Atlantic have followed the track of the 

 North Equatorial Current to the West Indies; and where, as often 

 happens, they have started as far south as the Cape Verde Islands, 

 they cross the Atlantic well south of the 20th parallel and arrive at 

 the Turks Group after brushing the coasts of the northern islands of 

 the Lesser Antilles. A glance at the map will show that in the last 

 case the drift approaches the Turks Islands from E.S.E., and that 

 these islands receive the drift which in the Antillean Current has 

 traversed the Lesser Antilles between Porto Rico and Guadeloupe. 

 The tracks of several bottles, as laid down in the American charts, 

 directly indicate that much drift from the south-east, which would 

 otherwise have arrived at the south-eastern end of the Bahamas, 

 has been intercepted by Porto Rico, the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, 

 and other islands in that region. 



Just as suggestive of the prevailing direction taken by drift, when 

 traversing the south-eastern Bahamas, are the results given a page 

 or two later for a large number of bottles dropped into the sea between 

 the Turks Islands and Hispaniola. Out of forty all were carried to 

 the westward, and nearly all entered the passage between Cuba and 

 the Bahamas leading to the Florida Strait. Though most of them 

 were stranded on the way, usually on the Cuban side, three passed 

 through and reached the straits. Of these, two got no farther and 

 were beached on the coast of Cuba; but one was caught in the 

 swift current of the Gulf Stream, and after a drift across the Atlantic 

 was recovered 337 days afterwards on the west coast of Ireland. 

 This westward trend of the bottle-drift after passing between 

 the Turks Islands and Hispaniola is the effect of the Antillean 

 Stream. 



The conclusion to be drawn from all these bottle-drift data is very 

 significant of the direction of the drift traversing the south-eastern 

 Bahamas. There is a prevailing set in a W.N.W. direction towards 

 the Florida Strait; but although much of the drift is stranded on 

 the way a certain proportion reaches the straits, and some of it gets 

 within the influence of the Gulf Stream. The indications are, there- 

 fore, that the Turks Islands lie in the track of drift on its way in the 



