346 



Part III. — Fifteenth Annual Report 



TJw East Coast of Scotland. 



The course taken l>y the other drifters put away on the east coast of 

 Scotland, south of the Moray Firth, was almost invariably to the south or 

 south-cast. A considerable number were set adrift in the Firth of Forth. 

 These took an irregular course, according to the wind and tide, like those 

 in the inner part of the Moray Firth. A few of them, however, were 

 carried out of the Forth, and then, as a rule, took the usual route 

 southward. Omitting those put away in the Forth and recovered there, 

 the tabulated results are as follows : — 



I. Found to the South — 



1. On Scotch coast, . . 58 



2. At sea off Scotch coast, . 2 



3. On English coast, . . 0 



Northumberland, . 20 



Durham, . . .10 



Yorkshire, . . .26 



Lincolnshire, . . 2 



Norfolk, 0 



58 



4. At sea off English coast, 1 



119 



II. Found on Continent — 



1. In Norway, . . .15 



2. In Sweden, ... 1 



3. In Denmark, . . 35 



4. In Germany, . . 4 



5. In Holland, ... 5 



60 



III. Found to the north, . 21 



All those found to the north fall into two groups : — (1) Those set 

 adrift at or near the mouth of the Firth of Forth, a few miles from 

 land, and which were stranded in the neighbourhood ; (2) those (nine in 

 number) which were carried north by the reversal of the movement of 

 the water in January 1897, which has been previously referred to. The 

 former group may be for the present passed over, as the results were due 

 to local causes alone ; so that, with the exception of the latter at the 

 beginning of the present year, none of the drifters travelled northward 

 up the coast. 



Two things stand out conspiciously in the above Table. The first is 

 that the drifters stranded on the English coasts were stranded on the 

 northern part. Only two were found in Lincolnshire, and none at all 

 (of those set adrift on the east coast) on the coast of Norfolk. Thus, 

 none were stranded south of the Wash, only two between the Wash and 

 the Humber, and the great majority to the north of Flamborough Head. 

 The second point is that, compared with the Moray Firth drifters, a great 

 number were stranded on the coast of Denmark, and comparatively few 

 in Norway, while some were found on the coast of Holland and 

 Germany. 



I The Table shows that 119 of the drifters had travelled southward along 

 the east coast, of which 58 were stranded on the coast of Scotland, and 

 exactly the same number on the English coast, while two were picked up 

 at sea off the Scotch coast, and one off the English coast. The great 

 majority of those stranded on the coast of Scotland were found in Fife 

 and East Lothian ; some were found on the Isle of May, at the mouth of 

 the Firth of Forth, and some in Berwickshire. Only two were picked 

 up on the coast of Forfarshire, and none in Kincardineshire or Aberdeen- 

 shire. They were, therefore, stranded, just as in the Moray Firth, on 

 the coasts which front the north. A considerable number were set adrift 

 in the vicinity of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, which lies about 10 miles south 



