468 



APPENDIX 



towards Nova Scotia after passing Hatteras. That the process 

 begins soon after the current emerges from the Florida Strait is 

 indicated below. 



West Indian vegetable-drift, as is well known, is thrown up on 

 the Bermudas in quantity; but the indications of bottle-drift are 

 that it would be usually belated. Vegetable-drift reaching the 

 islands from this region would hail from the seas between South 

 Florida, Cuba, and the Bahamas and from the coasts around. In 

 most cases, however, there would seem to be great delay, and it 

 is evident from the behaviour of bottle- drift that it may be carried 

 around the North Atlantic before it is stranded on the Bermudian 

 coasts. There is the case of a bottle that was recovered in Bermuda 

 nearly three and a half years after it had been dropped into the 

 sea, in February 1902, between Key West and the Cuban coast 

 (Amer. chart, Febr. 1909). There is another case of a bottle that 

 after being dropped over near Key West, in October 1901, was picked 

 up on Bermuda five and three-quarter years afterwards (Amer. 

 chart, Oct. 1908). Then we have a bottle which was found on Ber- 

 muda 466 days after it had been cast into the sea about 200 miles 

 to the northward of Great Abaco (N.W. Bahamas), though the direct 

 passage across the sea was barely 600 miles (Amer. chart, Febr. 

 1909). But that the passage of West Indian drift to these islands 

 may at times be fairly rapid is illustrated by a bottle that was re- 

 covered in Bermuda seventy-three days after it had been cast over- 

 board in the northern part of the Florida Strait, the passage of 900 

 miles having been accomplished at a minimum daily rate of rather 

 over twelve miles (Amer. chart, Nov. 1908). The behaviour of 

 this bottle indicates that the tailing off of drift from the Gulf Stream 

 towards Bermuda may begin soon after the current issues from the 

 Florida Strait. 



From the data above given, as far as they go, it may be inferred that 

 West Indian seed-drift may reach the Bermudas in the following 

 ways. It may be deflected eastward from the Gulf Stream soon 

 after the current issues from the Florida Strait, when the passage 

 would occupy two or three months. This deflection may not take 

 place until the current passes Cape Hatteras, when the time occupied 

 would be five or six months. The drift may be carried past the 

 Bermudas in the Gulf Stream and accomplish the circuit of the 

 North Atlantic, returning in the North Equatorial Current, which 

 would cover three years. Drift from the north-west Bahamas would 

 probably only reach Bermuda by getting within the influence of 

 the Gulf Stream farther north, a tedious process that is illustrated 

 by one of the bottles. 



With the North Equatorial Current, the carrier of drift from the 

 Old World, the Bermudas are connected by means of the Antillean 

 Stream (see Chapter III.), as is explained by Schott (p. 13). But 

 probably they would only receive in this way the drift in the slack 

 waters of the North Equatorial Current north of the 20th parallel. 

 In the American chart (May 1909) the track is given of a bottle, 

 thrown over in mid- Atlantic" in lat. 22° 54' N. and long. 39° 42' W., 

 which accomplished a passage computed at 2430 miles at the mini- 



