, 1863-05-09
The Gulf Stream.

us perfect picture of the other, perhaps
greater, but less appreciated, rivers of
warm and cold waters which traverse our
seas. Heated in a tropical furnace to
about sc derees fahrenheit current of hot
water, with sharply defined edge on Ell
ther 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 its vol
ume, out of the Gulf of Mexico along the
shores of Florida. There, curving upon a
great arc to the northwestward, it flows
three thousand miles, into the 10th degree
of north latitude yet such is the volume
of that heated water, that its temperature
through so long journey only falls to 83
or "a degrees. In that latitude the gulf
stream overfows its banks, and, flowing
out over many thousand square leagues,
diminishes much in heat and velocity, yet
reaches our shores, retaining enough of the
former to rescue us hom horrors of Lab
rador cIimate-to keep our seas open up to
the Goth degree of latitude, when. on the
opposite side of the Atlantic, the American
continent is sealed up with ice nine hun
and that warm current of water causes the
vapor-laden atmosphere Of Britain, which,
although much abused, it is STILL we be-
leve, preferable to the six months of frost
to which Canada and Russia are subjected
in similar latitudes. Such a torrent of hot
water traversing the Atlantic waters, natu-
rally occasions great perturbations of the
atmosphere, and the gulf-stream may just
ly be called ''a foul-weather breeder" The
English trader knows this well; but it
must come much more home to the Amer
lean navigator, because, on either quitting
or sailing towards his shores, he has inva-
riably to traverse the gulf stream, ar
stretched across belt of cold waters,
arctic current, which intervenes betwee.
and his home. There, and especi"
the winter season, the storm, cyclC
cross currents raise such a sea a
the best found bark, and tests the
hardihood of the seamen. From
to the Bay of Chesapeake, sno'
gales are encountered which
man skill. The trader from Tho
China, finds himself in q few b.
encumbered wreck, with a crc,,
by cold, and, but for the benefc
stream would assuredly be lost. Ahen Une
cunning master mariner, undsmayed by
the contact of the gulf stream with the arc
tic current, turns his ship S prov again to-
wards the former, and confidently steers to-
wards its we'll defined limits.
''His bark reaches is edge, and almost
at bound passes from the midst Of win,er
into sea at summer heat. Now the ice
disappears from his stiffened limbs in ter
pid water. Feeling himself invigorated
and refreshed with the genial. warmth about
him, he realizes out there at sea, the fable
Of Ant@us and Mother Earth. He rises
up, and attempts to make his port again,
and is again perhaps as rudely met and beat
back 10 the northwest 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 purpose,
and some Of the phases Of this river 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 still more mysterious un-
der currents, some Of which, rolling over
the ru gged surface of the earth's crust be-
meath, tear up the surface which are super
/
falls or rips whose waves even in calm
weather, will throw their crests upon the
decks of tall ships, and the force and direc
ton of which the inquiring mariner may
occasionally ascertain by lowering objects
down through the ocean, until they are
gripped and swep: away in the submarine
river Capitally do the officers of the u.
S. brig Dolphin describe such a recent ex-
pertinent. They sent log of wood five
hundyed fathoms down in the Atlantic, and
attached cask as a float to the upper end
of the line. Down sinks the loaded leg of
wood through the still depths of the upper
waters, until it strikes a seam of undercur-
rent 1t is then at once grasped by mystic
rious hands, and, to the astonishment Of
the sitters IN the boat the boat moves off
at the rate of 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 sWal-
lowed the tough bait, and doubt the ex-
PLANTATION given by their officers for even
we, who daily witness two currents of air
overhead, carrying the clouds in opposite
directions, or observe the mountain tops
lashed by a storm, whilst the valley rejoi-
ces in calm, cannot help expressing admi
ration and wonder at system of circula-
ton in 1the ocean, more grand, because
more mysterious than the circuits of the
winds Black1oOOd.