Science: Bluefin Bottles

Six thousand 12-oz. wine bottles, duly corked and sealed, bobbed placidly this summer on the rolling bosom of the Pacific. Only too glad was the California State Fisheries Laboratory, which released them from its ship the Bluefin, to have lucky fishermen find them floating in the deep. For the bottles which contained not wine but sand and a return postcard, were released to test the ocean drift which carries the pelagic eggs and larvae of sardines. Last week it was reported that only 150 bottles had been found. The farthest traveler had drifted 400 miles south, to Lower California, in 38 days.