Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-12-24

ment, picked up years later perhaps, has re-
lieved suspense by making certain the fate of
missing voysgers. 1t seems cdd that this idea
should have been recently adopted by science
for the practical and unYomantie purpose Of
finding out about the surface currents Of the
ocean
This work is the newest that has been under
| taken by the photographic Office of the United
| States navy. Within the last two years il has
distributed tens of thousands of "bottle papers,
among the !, 500 shippers of seagoing vessels,
from sailing craft to Atlantic liners, who con-
| tribute reports az voluntary observers in ex-
change for supplies of pilot charts, &C., given
by the government. These bottle papers are
| printed forms which the observers are requested
| to inclose in bottles and throw overheard after
| marking upon each of them the latitude, longi-
tude and date. On each paper il a separate
| space in which the person who may find the
bottle is asked to write the date and locality,
| afterward orwarding the paper to the nearest
United States consul to the photographic
office at Washington. Directions as to these
matters are printed on the paper in several
languages. Up to the present time 261 Of the
! bottle papers thus scattered broadcast have
| been returned but thousands of them are still
| ahoat, and Of these a considerable percentage
will be picked up sooner or later. OF course, it
| is impossible to know how many Of those placed
| In the hands Of observers have been duly
bottled and launched.
THE STORY OF THE BOTTLES
The courses taken by the bottles in drifting
| tells the story Of the ocean currents and
knowledge of these is Of the utmost importance
| to mariners. Chiefly it is valuable for enabling
vessels to select such routes across the seas as
will make it possible for them to take advan-
tage OF favoring streams and to avoid unfavOr-
able ones. Columbus knew nothing about the
currents OF the Atlantic, and SO he made his
way to the new world by the path which the
surface drift laid out for him. SThus after
| being driven far to the southwark he finally
brought up at San Salvador Knowing where
he started from and the point at which be
finally arrived, photographers today can draw
| a curved line on the map showing exactly the
course which he must have followed Just at
this time such fact possesses no
little interest. Only few months ago
the photographic Office called upon
to determine the probable location of
a Pacific mail steamship which was lost in the
Pacific ocean. Her machinery having broken
down, as was reported by vessel which had
signaled her, she had drifted of and nothing
had been heard Of her for weeks. The Pacific
Mail Company, being unable to find her, ap-
pealed to the experts at Washington, who
promptly pointed out the exact spot where she
would be discovered. And she was found there,
600 miles west of whore the owners had been
looking for her. This figured out from
known facts respecting the direction and We
! loclty OF the currents In that great waste of
waters.
THE OCEAN PATHWAYS.
An important part Of the business of the
photographic Office is the laying of tracks
across the ocean. They are none the less tual
roads because they marked with imaginary
lines instead of iron rails. Within the last few
weeks the experts have been called on to lay
out route for steamers direct from Baltimore
to the Mediterranean. Two roads were re-
quired, one to go and the other to come back
by. The road eastward had to be far north of
the return path in order to take advantage of
the tavoring currents each way. The tracks of
the great Atlantic liners between the United
States and Great Britain are accurately made
out and followed as if they were built on land,
the winter track being some distance south
of the summer track because of ice
bergs. Over these watery roads the ocean grey
hounds travel at the speed of moderately fast
| railway trains the maximum attained by the
City OF Paris being about % miles an hour
The tracks going and coming are 40 to 60 miles
apart, and the pilot charts warn sailing vessels
to avoid them, just as wagons warned to
keep off the railroads, for these swift steam
ships do not stop for fog or anything, but keep
on at full speed night and day, last summer
one OF them cut the schooner Fred. b. TAYLOR
fairly in two. the latter being on the track one
half floating one way and the other half the
other way.
PRINCES EXPERIMENT.
n""e VI 'hS cVticu PaPets set dHoat ny ING
Primes OF Monaco 1oated for more than five
years before they were picked up. His serene
high lesa, who is an enthusiast in such matters.
has i2coted much attention to experiments of
this sind. For the purpose of studying the
s,4Tssce currents of the Atlantic he launched
from his sailing yacht in 1885 and 1886 great
number of floats consisting of wooden casks,
copper globes and glass bottles All Of them
were weighted TO prevent any part Of them
from being out OF the water to catch the wind.
the object being to determine the drift He
| finally determined that the best float for the
purpose was thick glass bottle coated with
pitch and covered over this with copper. or
such bottles he launched 931 in the year 1887,
in line stretching from the Azores to the
Grand Banks Of Newfoundland.
Each Of them contained a document in nine
languages, asking the finder to record on it the
locality and date Of discovery and to forward
IL to the nearest maritime authorities, OF all
the bottle papers thus distributed he got back
| 227, some Of them bringing up in Iceland,
others on the west coast OF Africa others on
| the shores Of America and fourteen as far away
! as Japan. The prince has published charts
taken by the Atlantic currents as proved by
| the bottles.
VAST WHIRLPOOL.
1t has long been known that the waters of the
| Atlantic ocean are o sort Of whirlpool on a
! gigantic scale, the central point OF which is q
| short distance to the south west of the Azores.
| just as is the case Of an atmospheric cyclone,
| there exists in the middle OF this aqueous yor-
tex region where the fluid of the sea has
| scarcely any motion, SO that bottles or other
| floating objects entering it are apt to remain
there indefinitely. sinking finally to the bottom.
For miles thereabout the surface of the ocean
! Is covered with what is commonly known as
| "gulf weed" large areas of it having the an
| pearance Of drowned meadow, on which one
| might imagine it possible to walk.
This enormous vegetal accumulation was
| formerly supposed to be made UP of pIauts
torn away by the gulf stream from the shores
of the Bahamas and of Florida, but it is now
known that the weed grows and propagates
| while freely floating on the water 1t teens
| with multitudinous forms of hfe Not least
| interesting Of the myriad creatures which in
habit it are certain curious nest building fishes
They have arm-like fore fins, with which they
cling to the weed. making their nests by bind.
ing together globular masses OF it as big as
Dutch cheeses. This they accomplish by means
\ Of long, gelatinous strings, which they form for
| the purpose, finally depositing their eggs in
the center Of the sphere thus composed. The
weed itself is upheld by bulbs filled with air.
1 which serve as floats.
Shrimps and crabs swarm in the weed. and
they, as well rs the fishes, are eolored yellow
| and white in spots like the weed itself for pro-
| tective purposes. Sea worms similarly tinted
| are found there also in great numbers. All Of
the animals which dwell in this strange Sareasso
| sea seem to be either yellow and white or else
| perfectly transparent. There are transparent