Science: Word from a Raft

The seagoing raft Kon-Tiki, modeled after an ancient Peruvian balsa, is carrying six Scandinavian adventurer-anthropologists on a voyage of historical induction (TIME, April 21). After four days of radio silence, the raft was heard from again last week. Present position: about 1,300 miles east of the Marquesas. For a fortnight after the Kon-Tiki left Callao, Peru, the Peru current carried it northwest nearly to the equator. Then the south equatorial current and the southeast trade wind took over and pushed the raft due west across the Pacific. Drifting 40 to 50 miles a day, it...