of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



353 



having drifted 330 miles in a N.E. direction in 82 days. Another of 

 those put in at 250 miles from May Isle was also picked up near Bergen, 

 at Lyngoen, on 15th November, 91 days afterwards; and one set adrift 

 at 150 miles from May Isle was found on 1st December, 107 days later, 

 near Aalesund, Romsdal, Norway, 480 miles distant. 



These results agree with those derived from consideration of the course 

 of the drifters put away along the line between the Isle of May and the 

 Naze of Norway on 21st August. They show a movement southwards 

 along the English coast, and a simultaneous, but more extended and 

 rapid movement in a northerly or north-easterly direction in the middle 

 and eastern parts of the North Sea. 



The results in October are somewhat different. Twelve of this series were 

 recovered, eleven to the south, on the English coast, and one which was 

 brought up in a trawl-net from the Dogger Bank \ while none have as yet 

 been returned from the Continent. Four of the five bottles put away twenty 

 miles from the Isle of May were picked up on the northern part of the coast 

 of Northumberland, 19 to 25 miles to the south, three on the fourth and 

 one on the sixth day after immersion. One put in at thirty miles was found 

 on 3rd November, sixteen days later, on the coast of Yorkshire, 84 miles 

 to the south ; and four of those put away at fifty miles from the Isle of May 

 were found on the southern part of the Yorkshire coast, from 83 to 93 miles 

 distant, on the fourteenth and fifteenth day. The other two found on 

 the English coast belong to another category. One of them was set adrift 

 at 70 miles and the other at 130 miles from May Isle, and they were 

 both found on the coast of Northumberland 97 and 98 days later, on 

 23rd and 24th January. They were almost certainly well on their way 

 to the Continent when they were driven back by the reversed movement 

 of the water in January ; and this circumstance probably explains why 

 none of this series, nor of the series put in on the Norwegian route in 

 October and November, have yet been returned from the Continent. They 

 would be carried back again, and were most likely still off the English 

 coast at the end of January. 



Only one of the series set adrift on 23rd and 24th December has as 

 yet been recovered. It was put in 350 miles from May Isle (about 24 

 miles from Heligoland) on 24th December, and found eighty miles to the 

 north at the Horn, Denmark, on 5th January, sixteen days afterwards. 

 The prevailing wind in December was at Helder W.S.W., at the Scaw S. ; 

 in January 1897, at Helder E. by S. strong, and at the Scaw N.N.E. 



Between the English and Dutch Coasts. 



The third line along which drifters were put away extended from a point 

 twelve miles N.E. by E. of Elamborough Head to the Hook of Holland, 

 and they were set adrift on the 1st November 1896, and the 3rd January 

 1897. The details are given in the Table on pages 392, 395. Altogether 

 143 bottles and 70 wooden slips were thrown over on this line, and 

 although many of them were put away near the Dutch coast, and almost 

 all the others about midway between Holland and Norfolk, none were 

 recovered on the Continent until April, 1897, when some were picked 

 up on the coast of Jutland, Denmark. 



The principal objects in selecting this area for experiment were to 

 ascertain (1) whether the current that proceeds northwards along the 

 coast of Denmark was associated with a northerly movement from the 

 Channel; (2) whether the southerly movement of water on the east coast 

 penetrated to the Channel. So far as the experiments have gone, they 

 indicate that neither of these movements takes place, and that the cir- 

 z 



