472 



APPENDIX 



meal fashion in the bottle-drift charts. For instance, the traverse 

 from the West Indies to the coasts of Europe by the Gulf Stream 

 route and back again in the North Equatorial Current in tropical 

 latitudes is there many times illustrated. Several bottles have 

 performed the greater part of the circuit. Thus, one from the Cape 

 Verde Islands which reached the coast of Ireland must have taken 

 the West Indian route (see p. 59). Then, again, we get cases of this 

 kind. Bottles have been found on the Turks Islands from off the 

 Irish coast, and on the west coast of Ireland from the vicinity of the 

 Turks Islands (Note 20) ; the route in the first case being by the Cape 

 Verde Islands and the North Equatorial Current, and in the second 

 by the Straits of Florida and the Gulf Stream. An assumption that 

 the circuit of the North Atlantic has been almost accomplished is 

 justified where bottles have been thrown over in the vicinity of the 

 Nova Scotian coast and are found four years after on a Bermudian 

 beach (see Note 14). 



The circulatory movement of the waters in the North Atlantic 

 was established by the Prince of Monaco's extensive experiments, 

 as discussed in Chapter III.; but since his field of observation did 

 not extend to the western part of the ocean his conclusion was mainly 

 based on the drifting of his floats from positions north-west and east 

 of the Azores to the West Indies, the western portion of the circuit 

 being assumed, according to common knowledge, to be the work 

 of the Gulf Stream. The nearest approach to the completion of 

 the circuit by a single float was displayed in three cases, where his 

 floats thrown over to the north-west of the Azores were subsequently 

 recovered on the Bermudas. 



The principal delay in the circuit of the North Atlantic would 

 take place in the eastern portion of the ocean in the passage south 

 from European waters to the zone of the North Equatorial Current 

 in the vicinity of the Cape Verde Islands. This is indicated in the 

 table in Chapter III. dealing with the drifting rates of bottles ; and 

 it is well brought out in the circular drift of the derelict Alma 

 Cummings from off Cape Hatteras to Panama, where drifting 

 rates of sixteen or seventeen miles a day characterised the Atlantic 

 traverses in the Gulf Stream and in the North Equatorial Current 

 and a rate of only four miles a day in the passage of the intervening 

 zone (Schott). The track of the Alma Cummings is described 

 by Schott (p. 13, map 1) from materials given in the Nautical 

 Magazine for 1896. Since its positions were fixed during its passage 

 and the date of its beaching on the coast of the Panama Isthmus 

 was known, the estimate that it accomplished a passage of 5320 

 :miles at the average rate of ten miles a day is well founded. 



Note 16 (p. 50). 



Traverse of the North Atlantic by the derelict " W. L. White." 



An interesting record is supplied in the case of the derelict schooner 

 W. L, White, which was drifted to the Hebrides from Baltimore 



