Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-08-19
TEMPERATURE OF THF GULF STREAM AND
ITS INFLUENCE.

The Influence of the temperature Of the Gulf
stream upon animal life in the is very curious
The whale so sedulously shuns its warm waters, as
almost to indicate their track by its absence; while
yet abundantly found each side Of it. The physi-
cal reasons are doubtless the same which prevent
this great marine mammal from ever crossing the
equator from one hemisphere to the sother-a fact
now well ascertained. The various species of fish,
which are firm and of excellent flavor in the colder
belt of the sea upon the American coast lose all
their good qualities when taken out of the Gulf
stream; running closely parallel to it. On the other
hand the more delicate marine productions whe-
Their animal or vegetable, which multiply and pros
per by warmth are redundant in the Gulf stream,
even after il has Quilted the tropical regions whence
its heat is derived. The food is thus matured for
the whale field of the Azores, where this huge
denizen of the sea flourish in colder waters amidst
the abunance so provided
The peculiarities of this wonderful current are
found to be warmest at or near the surface, cooling
gradually dOwnwards, so as to render 1t probable
that there is bed cushion of cool water between
them and the solid earth lying below. Again, the
surface of the stream is shown to be not strictly
plane but having its axis central portion raised
somewhat higher than the level of the adjoining
Atlantic; thus giving it sort of roof shaped outline
and causing the surface water to flow off on each
side The existence of such surface current has been
boats oated near the centre Ofthe stream,
which drift either to the east or west, according to
the side of the axis on which they may be. This
curious fact has been attributed to the central
tiers of the current being warmest, and therefore,
of least specific gravity. 1t may be so; but we
cannot altogether discard another physical cause, viz
the enormous lateral compression exercised upon
the stream by the ocean waters through which it
forces It's way; tending to heap it up towards the
axal line.
Those who have beheld the wonderful spectacle Of
Niagara river, the miles below the Falls, urged
and compressed into narrow ravine that the mid
die of the stream rises twelve thirteen feet above
the Sides will be able to conceive this hydrOdynamic
influence, even on the side scale of operation which
we have now before
There is some evidence that the waters of the Gulf
Stream, when emerging from the Caribbean Sea, are
saer than those of the North Atlantic through which
they flow. But as the difference scarcely exceeds
half per cent we hesitate in believing with Lieut.
Maury that this greater sadness is the sole
of the deep blue color they assume. We receive,
too, with some distrust his speculations what he
considers the probable galranie qualities" of this
great stream. We have little doubt, indeed that
the electrical element pervading, in one other of
its FORMS the whole material world-giving motion
and change TO masses as well molecules, and
evolved or altered itself by every such motion and
chaDge-m8y have some concern, cause or effect,
in the natural phenomenon before us.-Edin6urgh
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