The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-11-10

through the West India Islands, and enters the
cauldron from the eastward. Thus we have
great horseshoe bend, as it were, in the cur
rents OF the Atlantic Ocean, in the centre Of
which there is a region of comparatively still
water, situated midway between the Azores, the
Csnaries, and the Cape de Verd Islands.
Here, in the centre Of the great whirl, the whole
surface of the sea is covered with thickly-mst-
ted Gulf weeds, and with all the drift.wood and
other matters sloughed off by the southern
edge of the Gulf Stream this extraordinary
floating surface, termed the Sargossa Sea, is the
same that Columbus met with in his great voy-
age of discovery, and which terrified his sailors
into the belief that they had reached. the limits
of navigation. This singular marine phenome
non is an example on small scale of what we
may see occurring every day in pan Of water
to which rotatory motion has been given-all
the light floating particles, such as bits of
straw, cork, &C., collecting in the centre, and
there remaining, in consequence of its being
the spot least disturbed by the surrounding
motion. Into this great bend OF the Allan
tic, We behold, the gathering place and FINAL
tomb of te0se mighty icebergs which, every
spring, issue forth in such majestic procession
from their birth place in the Arctic ocean,
sucked southwark by the current flowing to-
wards the Gulf When, after their long march,
they reach these still waters, their dissolution
rapidly commences, the warm air above and
the hot water beneath assault and undermine
their glittering pinnacles, and with laundering
crashes they split and subside into their ocean
bed.
Lieut.. Maury, in his acknowledgements
volume, The Physical Geography of the Sea-"
has ingeniously and truly likened the grand
mechanism of the Gulf Stream to the artificial
methods by which we produce warmth in our
houses. Messrs. Weeks, the great hot-house
builders, might have taken hint from the cur
rents of the Atlantic as to the best method of
producing a summer atmosphere In the depths
of the winter. In the downward flow of the
Arctic current would be found the counterpart
of the feed-pipe of the hot water apparatus; in
the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico the
vast boiler which elevates the temperature of
the water to eighty-6ve and sometimes ninety
degrees; and in the Gulf Stream, the hot-water
pipes, which, as they floor themselves out over
the ocean for thousands of miles, present a
vast amount of cooling surface, which gives of
to the Western breeze a moist dollhouse tenn
perature in the cold seasons Of the year. IL
must have often struck the reader as q remark
able fact, that even as late as June many of the
ports in our North American provinces are
closed with ice, whilst we are revealing in bright
summer weather-yet Labrador is situated in a
more southerly parallel Of latitude than Eae-
land. The explanation Of this is, that the Gulf
Stream is pushed off the North American sea
board by the descending cold crrrent, the diff
ference Of temperature between the two streams
running side by side being in the depth of win
ter not less than thirty degrees We may here
state, en- pasSans, that the tremendous fogs.
which in the winter season are always found
hanging over the Grand Banks of Newfonud-
land, are attributable to the condensation of
the warm and humid air of the edge of the
Gulf Stream by the cold air of the adjacent
current.
five follow the Gulf Stream across t',ie ocean.
we perceive how fully it fufls the. purpose for
which it was designed. Sir W alter Scott tells ns
that the pools in the Orkreys are never frozen.
the effects Of the grand hot water warming appa,
ratus of a far-distant shore being sensibly felt
even N these islands, which are situated in ati-
tude nearly ten degrees further north than the
lce-bound coast OF Labrador. We all know that
IN drest Britain there is an extraordinary DIFF
tpteseep between IN.
so great indeed as to induce completely differ
emit systems of agriculture. The Eunkrald Isle
owes her splendid grazing-land to the soft west
breezes born Of the Gulf StrOam which strikes
full upon her shores Ia. western shores of
England are robed in bright green pastures,
nourished with the warmth and moisture issu-
ing from the same tropical source. The dairy
produce of Great Britain has its root and issue
In this steadfast hotwater river in the ocean.
the limits of which modern science has so ac-
curateiy mapped; nay, the ford, plump looks
of our people, aud the large size Of our domes-
TIC animals, are but effects of that moist and
genial atmosphere which finds its birthplace
IN the bene6cent Gulf Stream.
And, III order to bring the effects Of this ex.
tFaordinary marine phenomenon closer home
to the stomach Of our reader, we may perhaps
be permitted to ask him, how it is that of late
years he has purchased peas, potatoes, and
broccoli, so many weeks before their season in
Covent Garden market Peas in MAY were
once thought to be an extravaganza only al
lowable TO Duke. Now, any moderate man
may indulge In them to his hearts content.
Well, these vegetables are forced-but in a hot
house atmosphere of natures own contriviug
Where the tail of the British dolphin dips into
the Atlantic, there the effects Of the Gulf Stream
are most felt; it is bathed with the warm. mc.ist
air, heated by the far-off Gulf cauldron, a.. ri we
may say with exactness that the majority efour
early vegetables sold in the open market nre
forced in lighthouses in CORNWALL and PORTUGAL
the seaboard ofthe more soptherly promontorv.)
by means of boiler situated beyond the West
Indian Archipelago, the conducting hot-water
pipe OF which runs for nearly four thousand
miles between the cold walls of the surroundings
ocean. Had the ancients been aware of this
property of the ocean, it would have modified
The representations Of the Pagan Olympus, and
we should have been familiar with the specta-
Gle of-turned gardener,
Mr.. CLAY's QUARREL WITH GESERAL TAY-