The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1862-11-22
miscellaneous.
The Gulf Stream.

perhaps greater, but less appreciated
rivers of warm and cold waters which
traverse our seas. Heated in tropica
furnace to about Sc degrees Fahrenheit
a current Of hot water, with a sharply
defined edge on either side, and flowing
over cushion of cold water running
down from the arctic zone, rushes with a
force equal to that Of the Amazon, but
with many times is volume, out of the
Gulf of Mexico along the shores Of
Florida. There, curving upon a great
arc to the northeastward, it flows three
thousand miles, into the 10th degree of
north latitude yet such is the volume
of that heated water, that its temporal
ture through so long a journey only falls
to SO or 81 degrees. In that latitude
the gulf stream overfows its banks, and,
tlarlng out over many thousand square
leagues, diminishes much in heat and
velocity, yet reaches our shores, retain
ing enough Of the former to rescue us
from the horrors of a Labrador climate
TO Keep our seas open up to the Goth
degree of latitude, when, on the opposite
side of the Atlantic, the American con-
tlncnt is sealed up with ice nine hundred
and sixty miles south of the Orkneys ;
and that warm current of water causes
the vapor-laden atmosphere of Britain,
which, although much abused, it is still,
we believe, preferable to the six months
OF frost to which Canada and Russia are
subjected to in similar lati udes. Such
torrent of hot water traversing the
Atlantic wastes, naturally occasions
great perturba'ions of the atmosphere,
and the gulf stream may justly be called
g a foui-weather breeder" The Eng
llsh trader knows this we'll but it must
come much more home to the American
navigate or, because, on either quitting or
sailing towards his shores, he has invari-
ably to traverse the gulf stream, and
stretch across a belt of cold water, the
artic current, which intervcnes between
1T and his home. There, and especially
In the Winter season, the storm, cyclous,
and cross currents raise such sea as
skaters the best found barque, and tests
the skill and hardihood of the seamcn.
From New York to the Bay of Chesa.
pcake, snow storms and gales are en-
countered which mock all human skill
and nerve. The trader from the Pacific,
or China, finds herself in few hours an
icc-cncumbercd wreck, with a crew par
alyzed by cold, and, but for the bcnef-
cent gulf stream, would assuredly be
lost. Then the cunning mast mariner,
undismayed by the battle of the clc-
ments, occasioned by the con. act of the
gulf stream with the artic current, turns
his ships PROV again towards the former,
and confidently steers towards its well
defined limits.
" His barque reaches its edge, and
almost at bound passes from the midst
OF Winter into a sea a Summer heat
Now the ice disappears from her APP
parel the sailor ba hes his stllcncd
limbs in ;epid water. Feeling himself
invigorated and refreshed with the genial
warmth about him, he realizes, out there
at sea, the fable of Antnus and mo her
Earth. lie rises up, and attempts to
make his port again, and is again per-.
haps as rudely met and beat back to the
nor Invest but each time that he is
driven off, he comes forth from this
stream, like the ancient son of Neptune,
stronger and stronger, until, after many
days, he at last triumphs, and enters his
haven in safety-though in this contest
he sometimes falls, to rise no more for it
is terrible"
Such, in brief, is the cause, the pur-
pose, and some of the phases of this riv-
er OF the sea. We must pass on to
other features as wonderful and strange
although, before doing so, we cannot
help remarking, that if these currents
which flow through the surface of the
waters are awe-inspiring, how much more
so are the still more mysterious " under
currents" some of which, rolling over
the rugged surface of the carth's crust
beneath, tear up the surface wa crs which
are super-inIposcd, and occasion those
strange overfall," Or "ripps:" whose
waves, even in calm weather, will throw
their crests upon the decks of tall ships,
and the force and directing of which the
| '"I"i'ihS hiuiihel may oocdoloudlly dCCT-
tain, by lowering objects down through
the ocean, until they are grippcd and
swept away in the submarine river.
Capitaliy do the officers of the United
States brig Dolphin describe such re-
cent experiment. They sent a log of
wood five hundred fathoms down in the
Atlantic, and attached a cask as float
to the upper end of the line Down
sinks the loaded log of wood through the
still depths of the upper waters, until it
strikes a seam of under-current. 1t is
then at once grasped by mysterious
hands, and, to the astonishment of the
sittcrs in the boat, the floats moves off
at the rate of a mile, and sometimes at
two miles an hour, up in the eye of the
wind, and in spite of the wash of the
sea- Well might the blue jackets rub
their eyes, and wonder what monster of
the deep had swallowed the tough halt,
and doubt the explanation given by their
officers, for even we, who may daily
witness two currants of air overhead,
carrying the clouds in opposite directions,
or observe the mountain tops dashed by
storm, whilst the valley rejoiccs in
calm, cannot help expressing admiration
and wonder at system of circulation in
the ocean, more grand, because more
mysterious than the circuits of the winds.
B[acE,go0G.