Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1861-06-21

made in the North Atlantic upon posi-
tions between the equator and % degrees
north latitude, that the N. L. winds are
not in excess of those from the opposite
direction-indeed, Maury shows thai
over that area the S. w. wind is really
the major atmospheric current Yet the
itrade.wind theorists would have US sup
pose that the piling up of the waters in
Caribbean Sea, by this miner current Of
air, was so prodigiousas to create power
capable Of discharging across the Atlantic
stream fully one thousand times the
volume of the Mississippi.
In the mex. place, SO far from the hot
waters of the Gulf Stream at their source
being at a higher level than in other
parts Of the current, the observations
made by the officers of the United States
navy, during the coast survey, 60 TO show
that the Gulf Stream, in its passage
through the straits Of Florida, as far as
Cape Hatteras, so far from descending,
is actually forced up an ascent of about q
foot in the mile; and the descending
theory is fully confuted.
That the action Of the trade-winds
causes what sailors terms a surface-drft
of water, and therefore in some degree
assists the initial velocity of this Atlantic
stream, is generally allowed; but most
men practically acquainted With the ac-
ton of winds upon oceanic surfaces will
agree with Mr. Maury, that that force is
quite insufficient of itself to force such a
body of water into the Caribbean Sea
as to occasion a recoil which would pro-
ject volume OF heated water in great
arc from the Straits of Florida as far as
Cape North, in LapIand. We are, how
ever, bound to say that great authority,
Sir John HerscheIl, appears to think tha,
the trade-winds are sufficient for the pur-
pose-uot, indeed by causing a great head
of water in the seas engirt by the West
Indies, but that, by sort of billiard ball
process, the PARTICLES of water roll along
before the winds, until they cushion off .
the shores Of 1Iexico, "eannon here
and there between Cuba and Hatteras,
and eventually make a pocket upon
the coast Of Western Europe. Indeed
our Goliah Of science appears somewhat
irritated that inquisitive sailors should
dare to question theories which are SO
utterly at variance with their knowledge
and observation for we find, in the last
edition of the Encyclopedia BriHanica,
complaint that the dynamies Of the
Gulf Stream Of late, in the work OF Lieut.,
Maury, been made the subject Of much,
we cannot but think, misplaced wonder,
as if there could be any possible grounds
for doubling that it owes its origin entirely
to the trade-winds.
Maury, however, like another David,
in no wise daunted by Feproof which,
had it been applied to an ordinary man,
would have caused him, like the sons OF
Israel, " to de dismayed aud sore afraid
chooses his smooth stones from the brook,
and calls the sea and sailors to witness
that not one of the constant currents @!
ocean either sets with the wind or makes
such bound as some theorists are anX-
ious to establish. The Gulf Stream ac-
tually drives, as even landsmen know, to
windward for hundreds of miles in the
teeth of the trade-wind. The Mozam-
bque current, which isl wide as the
Gulf Stream is long, cuts across the path
of the southeast trade; the arctic cur
rents OF both poles drift the iceberg
athwart the brave west winds of the tenn
perate regions; and the Jopanese Gull
Stream carries the stout ship up at a rail-
road pace, in spite of the monsoons and
gales of China and Tartary. The bottles
which have been thrown into the sea to
test currents have foated across and
against prevailing Winds aud they, too,
vindicate Maury's assertion that, although
winds do to a certain extent create sur
face currents and sea-drihs, they arc
ephemeral in their existence, limited in
their effect, and have no connection with
those great currents, the real arteries OF
the ocean.-BlackWood