1898-99.] Dr Buchan on Tidal Currents of the North Sea. 479 
by the United States Hydrographic Office, the German Seewarte 
of Hamburg, the Prince of Monaco, and by various others. Two 
kinds of floats were used by Dr Fulton — namely, bottles and slips 
of wood — and very full details are given as to the method employed 
in conducting the experiments. 
The number of floats set adrift on the east coast of Scotland, 
within 20 miles of the shore south of the Pentland Firth, was 
1864; in the neighbourhood of the Pentland Firth, 369 ; on the 
route to Christiansand, 630; on the route to Hamburg, 520 ; and 
between a point 1 2 miles off Flamborough Head and the Hook of 
Holland, 200 ; and others were put into the sea off the east coast 
at a distance greater than 20 miles. Of the above, the number 
found on various coasts up to the end of March 1897 was nearly 
700, which were forwarded to the Fishery Board. 
The results of discussion of the returns received by the Board are 
thus summarised by Dr Fulton : — 
“ The surface Atlantic water passes southwards and eastwards 
from the Shetlands and Orkneys ; it then moves southwards along 
the east coasts of Scotland and England to the neighbourhood of 
the Wash, impinging more or less on the coasts that run at an 
angle to it, such as Banff, Aberdeen, Fife, East Lothian, Berwick, 
and the East of England as far as Spurn Head. Thence the move- 
ment of the surface water is eastwards towards the Continent, the 
main body impinging on the coast of Denmark north of the Horn. 
The course is then northward to the Skagerrak and the west 
coast of Norway, as far at least as the Loff odens.” 
These are stated to be the regular and predominating courses of 
the currents of the North Sea as arrived at by this system of obser- 
vation of the movements of the surface water. It will be noted that 
for the coasts of Scotland and England, as far south as the Wash, 
it is identical with the course of the tidal currents of the North Sea 
as given in the Encyclopaedia Britannica article on the “Tides.” 
In August 1865, Dr George Keith undertook, at the request of 
the Council of the Scottish Meteorological Society, to make observa- 
tions on the temperature of the sea on a cruise in the yacht “St 
Ursula ” from Gravesend to the Faroe Islands.* His observations 
* See Journal of the Scottish Meteorological Society , New Series, vol. i. 
p. 333. 
