The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-11-10
From Once Week
OCEAN HORTICULTURE.

The visiter strolling along the shingly bays
OF Cornwall, kicking the drift weeds as they lie
in long black line upon the shore, now and
then chances upon worn and shattered piece
of bamboo or upon the bright seeds of some
tropical cline. If these weather-beaten travel.
lers could tell Of their long journeying ere they
were finally cast ashore, his attention would be
instantly arrested, for these worthless pieces of
drift are the TALES " the Almighty has placed
upon the ocean, which prove that what we term
the great waste of waters, circulates in their
ocean-depths as regularly and unerrngly by as
the blood LII our own veins.
By slow degrees the great maritime nations
of the earth are building up new science the
physical geography Of the sea. We are discov-
ering the laws which cause and regulate those
once mysterious currents, which seemed to be
urging the ancient mariner who ventured into
unknown seas, towards the dreadful verge of
the world. Of these currents, we are most fully
acquainted with that known as the "Gulf
Stream Of the Atlantic. The traffic between
ourselves and America has become so great.
that if every keel could plough an enduring
mark upon the cheering pond" there would
perhaps be scarcely part left on its vast sur.
face between the lattudes of ZOE and 45e I'm.
marked. This sea being thus brought within
the vision OF seantless eyvs- trairrd 70 watch
the changes Of the Deep it is not surprising
that we should have ascertained its circulating
system with tolerable accuracy. Yet no fur.
Their back than the time of Franklin, we were
in entire ignorance of the Gulf Stream, and of
its effects upon navigation. Vessels bound for
New York in the winter were astonished to
find themselves one day sailing along sum.
mer sea, and the next day, when within sight
of land perhaps, blown off the shore hy an
Arctic gale, which dressed in icoles the spars
and ropes. BY degrees, however, it came to
be understood that there was constant set of
the ocean into the Gulf of Mexico from the south.
east and north. and flow outwards towards tha
northeast. Since the year 1908, the direction
of these currents has BIZ degrees been most
carefully mapped by the practice introduced
into our navy of casting bottles into the ocean,
containing papers accurately marking the po-
SitiOn of the ship at the time these fragile mes
sengers were sent forth. The surface drift after
many days casts these ashore, if they 90 in a
shoreward directions and the records of the
passages made by them for the last half cen.
fury have been collected by the photographer
of the Admiralty into what is termed I" the Cur
cent Bottle Chart" This singular zap clearly
shows that all the bottles thrown into the ocean
near the Canaries, or the Cape de Verd Islands.
make directly for the west, and touch land
among the West India Islands, some even pen
etrating to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.
Those again, which are cas-, into the ocean on
the western side of the Atlantic, from about the
latitude of New York, make off ip q northeast
ern direction, and voyage until they are cast on
the western shores of Europe. Frail as these
bottles may seem, some Of them must have
made extraordinary voyages ere they finally
reached their haven. Thus, bottle thrown
overheard from the Prima Donna OF Cane
Coast Castle, on the west coast Of Africa, after
voyaging for two years, was finally found on
the coast of Cornwall Now, it is evident that
this little messenger, before it could have reach
ed this shore, must have been carried by the
Guinea current eastward until it met the Afr.
can current coming from tho southwark. with
which it would recross the equator. and travel
with the equatorial current through the West
India Islands until it got within the influence
OF the Calf Stream, which finally carried it to
the northeast, and cast it on the shores of Corn
wall, after journey Of many thousand miles.
Other bottles, again, that have been cast into
the sea from sister ships, making for the Arctic
ocean, although at seven hundred miles dis
lance, have been known, after traversing the
Atlantic from north to southwest to finish their |
journey within thirty miles of each other
And now having shown the direction of the |
cnrrentssto and from the Gulf Of Mexico. let us !
follow the Gulf Stream. IL we look ut man
of the Gulf of Mexico, we End that 1t is land. |
locked sea on the rasth, south, and west it ia |
shaped, iIdeed, like q vast cauldron, the ascer. |
tanned average depth of which ia one mile for |
heating this caudron we have the fierce sun of
the equator, which sends its temperature up to
eighty-Rve degrees. The sea water thus heated |
expands, and pours out of the Gulf in one i'm.
lnense stream, the centre Of which is found to
be about two inches higher than its edges in |
the surrounding ocean. This stream, which in |
OF its intense saltnesa IS tinged a |
deep indigo color, immediately it clears the
Straits ct Florida makes away in northeast
direction for the western shores Of the Old |
World. The extraordinary nature of the flow
IS, that it is tcdrm rirer in the ocean, its banks
'n either side, and its bottom, being in the sp,a
Ter composed Of icy cold pater This ,remen |
ious issue from the GE,s @ps, however End
ZONE supply to All up the vacuum that other.
EI=s would arise, and we find it mainly coming
tom the Arctic sea, tina current pushing its
way down between the coast Of North America,
md the Gulf Stream flowing up across the At.
antic, In northeast direction. The Arctic
downward current however, expands and con-
racts with the seasons; at one time shoulder.
ng the bot current more " the east and then
again giving wsy ON the coming of winter. By
easoI &C this agency, the Gulf Stream is con.
inually waving about in mia-ocean, as Lieut.
daury POLITICALLY says, like pennon il the
,reeze."
But there is also the how into the Gulf,
ermed the Equatorial Current, which sweeps