BOTTLE FLOATS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13290, 20 May 1907, Page 6

BOTTLE FLOATS.

Mr. C. S. Xixon, Collector of Customs, has received from the Secretary to the Marine Department, the following communication which has been received through the High Commissioner in London, from the fc>cottish Geographical Laboratory, in regard to bottle floats thrown overboard from the 4 " Scotia"—the vessel of tht Scottish Xeaioual Anartctic Expedition:—"During tho last few months two bottle floats, which were thrown overboard from'-the "" Scotia," the vessel of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, have been recovered on the coast of Victoria, Australia, after travelling a distance of from 90C0 to 10,000 miles as you will see per enclosed number of the Scottish Geographical Magazine. The floats were ordinary bottles with- a numbered pap-r inserted in them, requesting the finder to retnrn the same to the British Admiralty. with whom arrangements had been made for their receipt. These floats were thrown out for the purpose of investigating the currents of the ocean in the Southern Hemisphere, and I should be pleased if you could give me any assistance by notifying in the Colony of Xew Zealand the likelihood of their being swep'u ashore, or being found floating in seas adjacent, and requesting the finders, in the int.rests of oceano-grnphical research, to return them to the Biitish Admiralty. Trusting you will be able to see your way to help in thi'-f investigation of the force and direction of the currents of the Southern Ocean?."

In the k-ttor from the Secretary to the Marine Department. Mr Xixon is a*ked :o forward t-o Wellington, any of these floats which may be washed" ashore in this district.