The weekly Butte record., 1863-05-09
The Gulf Stream.


oceanic currents, the gulf stream affords Us &
perfect picture of the other perhaps greater,
but less appreciated, rivers Of warm aud cold
waters which traverse our seas. Heated in 4
tropical furnace to about so degrees Fahren-
heit, current of hot water, with a sharply
defined edge on either side, and flowing over a
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 coast
of Florida. There, curviug upon great are
to the northeastward, it flows three thousand
miles, into the fortietb degree of north latitude;
yet such is the volume of that heated water
that Its temperature through so long journey
only falls TO So or So. In that latitude the
gulf stream overfows its banks and faring out
over many square leagues, diminishes much 10
heat and velocity, yet reaches our shores re-
tanning enough of the former to rescue rs from
the horrors Of Labrador climate-to keep
our seas open up in the sixtieth degree of laii-
tude, when, on the opposite side Of the Allan.
tic, the American continent is sealed up with
ice nine hundred and sixty miles south of the
Orkney Islands; and that warm current OF
water carries the vapor laden atmosphere of
Britain, which, although much abused, il is
still, We believe, preferable to the six months
of frost to which Canada and Russia are SUBJ
jected to in similar latitudes. Such torrent
Of hot water traversing the Atlantic wastes
naturally occasions great perturbations of the
atmosphere, and the gulf stream may be called
a q foul weather breeder" The English trader
knows this well but it must come much more
home to the American navigator, because on
quitting or sailing toward bis shores he has
invariably to traverse the gulf stream, and
stretch across belt of cold water, the arctic
current which interyeues between it and his
home. There, and especially in the winter
season. the storm, cyclones and cross currents
raise such a sea as skaters the best found
barque, and tests the skill and hardihood of
Chesapeake, snow storms and gales are encoun-
tered which mock oil human skill and nerve.
The trader from the Pacific, or China, finds
herself in few hours an ice encumbered wreck.
with crew parailized by cold, and but for the
beneficent gulf stream, would assuredly be lost
Then the cunning master mariner, undismayed
by the battle of elements occasioned by the
contact of the gulf stream with the arctic cur
rent, turns his ships PROV again towards the
former, and confidently steers towards the well
defined limits.
His barque reaches its edge aud almost at a
bound passes from the midst of Winter into q
sea at Summer heat. Now the ice disappears
from her apparel-the sailor bathes his stifen-
ed limbs in tepid water. Feeling himself in-
vigorated and refreshed by the genial warmth
about him, he realizes, out there at sea, the
fable of Antcus and Mother Earth. He rises
up and attempts TO make bis port again, and
is again perhaps as rudely met ard beat back
to 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 triumpbs
and enters his haven in safety-though in the
contest be 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 wonder
ful 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 ragged surface of the
earth's crust beneath, tear up the surface wa
tiers which are super-mposed, and occasions
those strange over-falls. or rips, whose waves
even in calm weather, will throw their crests
upon the decks of tall ships, and the force and
direction Of which the nquirng mariner may
occasionally ascertain, by lowering objects
down through the ocean, until they are grip
ped and swept away in the submarine river
Capitally do the officers of the United
States brig Dolphin describe such recent
experiment. They sent a log of wood FIVE
hundred fathoms down in the Atlantic, and
attached 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 seam of under-current. 1t is
then at once grasped By mysterious hands
and 10 the astonishment of the sitters in the
boat, the float moves off at the rate of a mile
and sometimes 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 bait. and doubt
the explanation given BY their officers; for
even we, who may daily witness two currents
Of air overhead carrying the clouds in opposite