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Show REVEAL TREND OF CURRENTS Travel of Bottles Dropped Into tha Ocean Convey Information to tho Navy Departments. The hydrographlc bureau of the-navy the-navy department is always interested In endeavors to ascertain, by means of bottle messages, Information as to the movements of the oceans. These bottles contain papers that have been -dropped overboard from vessels In many places, to drift at the mercy of the winds and waves. Many of them have been found and picked up either In the open sea or on shores whera they have been stranded. Knowing from their records whera the bottles had been thrown overboard, over-board, the bureau has been able to trace. In a general way, the path they must have followed in order to reach, the places where they were found. In one report alor there were published pub-lished the adventures of over one hundred hun-dred bottles. Being partially "lied with air and then securely corked, the bottles float on the surface of the water and go wherever the wind and the current of the sea carry them. Each bottle contains con-tains a record of the place and the date of Its starting. Some of thosa found have floated for many months, and sometimes years, and have traveled trav-eled thousands of miles. It has been found that bottles dropped overboard between the shores of the United States and England or France usually travel toward the northeast, following the course of that great river in the Atlantic ocean, the gulf stream. Bottles started off thai coasts of Spain and Africa travel, aa a rule, westward until they arrive among the West India islands. Along" the European side of the ocean tha bottle takes a southerly course and, along the American side a nwtherly; course. ! |