The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-25 00:00:00

HAY MARKETS.

.SMITHFIELD.—Meadow hay, 21 lOs to 4/ Os ; clover do.,
3/ 5s to 5/ OA; and straw. 1/ 4s to 1/ 9s per load •
A full average supply and a sluggish demand.
CWMBERLAND. —Meadow hay, 2/ 123 to 4/ 03 ; clover
do.. 3/ 103 to 5/ Os ; and straw, 1/ 4s to 1/ 9s per load
Both hay and str.tw moved off slowly, at our quotations.
WHITECHAPEL. —Meadow hay, 2/ 103 to 41 Os ; clover
do., 3/ 103 to 51 03 ; and straw, 1/ 4s to 11 83 per load.
Supply tolerably good and trade firm.

VACANCIES, APPOINTMENTS, AND PROMOTIONS IN
THE CIVIL SERVICE,—War Department.—Mr. Graharu
Branscombe, of the military store branch, has been ap•
pointed to Hong-Kong in charge of stores for the expedi-
tionary force in China. General Post office. Tsao
vacancies have been caused in the account branch,
General Post Office, Edinburgh, by the eieath of Mr.
James Croal and the superannuation of Mr, Watson.
British Museum.—Mr. W. B. Rye, senior assistant, has
been appointed an assistant keeper in the department of
printed books, Coastguard. CommandEr Thomas
Goss has been appointed to the Queenstown division,
vice Commander Lockyer, removed to Grimsby, Mr.
George Reid Morriion has been appointed muter of the
Argots, vice Mr. Pyper Commander W. L. N. Locks er,
.
inspecting commander, Quee. nstown, has been removed
to Grimsby, vice Commander Power, whose period
of service has expired. Customs.—Mr. John F. Car-
ter has been appointed a clrek in the legal quays de.
nartment, London. Mr. John Pierce has been
promoted from an assistant controller of accounts
at Liverpool to be controller of accounts in the Lonuon
Docks. Mr. Thomas Foreman has been promoted from
clerk first class iu the London Docks to be assistant
controller of accounts at Liverpool. Mr. David Lennox
has been promoted from principal coast officer at Holy-
head to be controller at Teignmouth. East Indies.—
Mr. C. W. Cunliffe, assistant commissioner, second
class, has been appointed assistant commissioner, first
class, in Oude, vice Lieutenant Black, resigned. Mr.
S. J. Stroyan, assistant commissioner, third class, has
been appointed assistant commissioner, second class,
vice Captain Steel, whose services have been placed at
the dispos,d of the Commander-in-Chief. Lieutenant
L. C. Barton, assistant commissioner in the Punjaub,
on special duty in Katty war, has been appointed an
assistant to the resident at Baroda, vice Captain M. J.
Battye, resigned.—Civil Serrico Gazette.

The general description of the Gulf Stream;
apart from any present question as to its sources is,
that of a vast and rapid ocean-current, issuing from
the basin of the Mexican Gulf and Carribean Sea,
doubling the southern cape of Florida; pressing;
forwards to the north-east, in a line almost parallel
to the American coast ; touching on the southern
borders of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, and
at some seasons partially passing over them ;
thence, with increasing width and diffusion, travers-
ing the whole breadth of the Atlantic, with a cen-
tral direction towards the British Isles ; and finally
losing itself by still wider diffusion in the Bay of
Rscay, on our own shores, and upon the long line
of the Norwegian coasts. Its identity in physidal
characters is preserved throughout the many
thousand miles of its continuous flow—the only
change undergone is that of degree. As -its
waters gradually commingle with those of the
surrounding sea their deep blue tint declines,
their • high temperature diminishes, the speed
with which they press forward abates. But
taking the stream in its total course, it well war-
rants the vivid description and the name bestowed
upon it by a modern author, of a "river in the
ocean." This epithet (bringing to memory the
poi? ChcEavoio of Homer), is, in truth, singularly ap-
propriaee to this vast current ; so constant and con-
tinuous in its course ; and so strangely detached
from the great mass of ocean waters ; which, while
seemingly cleft asunder to give path to its first im-
pulse, are yet ever pressing upon it, gradually im-
pairing its force and destroying its individuality.
The maximum of velocity, where the stream quits
the narrow channel of Bemini, which compresses its
egress from the gulf, is about 4 miles an hour. Off
Cape Hatteras, in North Carolina, where it has
gained a breadth of 75• miles, the velocity is re-
duced to three miles. On the parallel of the New-
foundland banks it is further reduced to a mile and
a half an hour, and this gradual abatement of force
is continued across the Atlantic. The tempera-
ture of the current undergoes similar change.
The highest observed is about 85 degiees Fahren-
heit. Between Cape Hatteras and Newfoundland,
though lessened in amount, the warmth of the
stream in winter is still 25 or 30 degrees above that
of the ocean through which it flows. Nor is this
`heat wholly lost when it reaches, and is spread over,
the coasts of i‘ orthern Europe. The waters, thus
constantly flowing to us from the tropical regions,
bring warmth as well as abundant moisture to our
own islands, and Ireland especially, upon which
they more directly impinge, doubtless derives much
of its peculiarity of climate, its moisture, verdure,
and abundant vegetation from, this source. Were
it needful to seek proof of the permanence of the
great natural phenomenon of which we are speak-
ing, we might find it in those curious passages of
ancient geographers—Pomponiaus Mela and J. So-
linus Polyhister, for example—which describe the
peculiarities of the Irish soil and climate 18 centu-
ries ago, almost as we should depict them now.
But the influence of the Gulf Stream does not stop
even here. The climate it may be said to con-
vey is diffused, more or less, over the
whole Norwegian coast, the aspects and pro-
duce of which singularly contrast with those
of the corresponding latitudes in North America,
Greenland, and Siberia. Other causes doubtless
contribute to this effect, but none, we apprehend,
so largely or unceasingly. The influence of the
temperature of the Gulf Stream upon animal life
in the ocean is very curious. The whale so sedu-
lously shuns its warm waters as almost to indicate
their track by its absence, while yet abundantly
found on each side of it. The physical reasons are
doubtless the same which prevent this great marine
mammal from ever crossing the equator from one
hemisphere to the other—a fact now well ascer-
tained. The various species of fish which are firm
and of excellent flavour in the colder belt of the sea
upon the American coast lose all their good quali-
ties when taken out of the Gulf Stream running
closely parallel to it. On the other hand, the
more delicate marine productions, whether animal
or vegetable, which multiply and prosper by warmth,
are redundant in the Gulf Stream, even after it has
quitted the tropical regions whence its heat is de-
rived. The food is thus 'natured for the whale
field of the Azores, where this huge denizen of the
seas flourishes in colder waters amid the abundance
so provided.—Edinburgh Review.