The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-05-08
The Gulf Stream.

$1,000
any cold climate, and his minds eye in
stantly pictured for him western CONT
nent which had sent these waits to that icy
coast. But his VISION was not sharp and
clear enough to discern the wonderful
stream that tioated them steadily on for
thousands of miles, perhaps from that very
island of San Salvador where he afterward
landed; carrying by circuitous route,
through sea, gulf, and straits, these mes
sengers sent to tempt the northern people
over to the luxurious climate of which they
bore tidings; and at the same time supply
ing, unpaid, and even unthanked, the
grandest heating apparatus in the world,
by which the British Isles, Norway, Den
| mark, and Iceland are rendered habitable.
"What do you know of the Gulf
Stream9' was school committees ques-
ton to a little boy the other day.
/ II have never seen it" promptly replied
the child
| | fancy most of my readers would give a
different answer but it may not be amiss
| to come and see it with me for few minu-
| ties to-day.
| The tropical seas represent the great cal
dron of hot water from which run the pipes
of Gods. grand apparatus for warming
these continental apartments of our world,
and the greatest and most wonderful of
these pipes is the Gulf Stream Striking
the coast of South America at Cape St.
Rogue, it sweeps along the northern shore
of that continent, PUSHES through the Car
! ibbean Sea, where it gathers cocoanuts,
/ sea-weeds, and bits of tropical woods,
whirls round the Gulf of Mexico with
force that keeps all its waters in motion,
gathers into one mighty current volume
of water equal to three thousand MISSISSIPPI
pi rivers, and pours itself out of the Florida
| Straits. And now mark its course.
| 1t has been said that, if we had a
cannon capable of throwing ball three
! thousand five hundeed miles, and could
! plant that cannon at the Florida Straits,
and, aiming it at Ireland, fire, our ball
would follow exactly the course pursued by
the Gulf Stream.
! AS it shoots out of the Straits, it takes a
shape of its own, a color of its own, and,
indeed, SO decided character, that it per-
sists in holding itself quite distinct from
the surrounding waters. 1t is about two
feet higher in the middle than at the sides,
and thus is roof-shaped. The sailors ascer-
tain this by lowering boat and noticing
its drift to one side or the other, while the
| heo vinr vessel 6rapyinr mora ,vo+or oJa,ra,
! its way through the current undisturbed by
/ its surface shape. If we are sailing along
| the ridge of this roof, we may throw out
two bottles, one on either side of our vessel,
and that on the eastern side will inevitably
visit Ireland, Scotland, or some other por-
ton of western Europe, while the other
will as surely be picked up on the Ameri-
shore-neither can so up hill or climb the
ridge of that roof. The color of the
stream is darker blue than the surround
! ing ocean, and the water is salter, which
! gives it greater power to corrode the cop
| per vessels bottoms; SO we have one sin to
! lay to its charge. Could we gather all its
/ heat into a mighty furnace, it would raise
mountains of iron from zero to the melting
/ point, and keep in flow from them molten
stream of metal greater than the Mississippi
! pi river.
1t gathers its heat in the tropics, but
! why is it not all lost on this long voyage?
/ Do you know that cold earth would take
! away heat more rapidly than cold water
would? and for its better preservation, the
| Gulf Stream is not allowed to touch the
bottom of the ocean, but is protected by a
cushion of cold water interposed below.
| 1t seems to possess an almost magical
power of attracting every floating thing
| that is dropped into Atlantic waters. You
know that sailors are in the habit of throw
ing overheard bottles marked with the
names of their vessels and their latitude and
! longitude. These bottles are often picked
| up thousands of miles from their starting
point. have heard of map showing the
tracks of more than one hundred of these
| bottles, and, sooner OF later, every bottle
had passed through the Gulf Stream. The
winds and storms too tend toward it from
all directions, and the sailors call it
| - WcatneT-DreeQeT.
/ When it reaches the outlet of Baffin's
Bay. it meets the icebergs coming down
| from the north, bringing their loads of
! sand stones and earth. With its melting
power it makes them drop their burdens
and build up the grand banks of Newfound-
land with the soil they have torn away from
Artic lands.
In this part of its course it also proves
invaluable to vessels whose rigging has be-
come coated with ice. Often they run out
from our harbors into the Gulf Stream for
the simple purpose of being thawed out.
Many years ago. it was met and almost
conquered by great storm from the north
east which with furious strokes drove its
waters backward and heaped them up in
the Gulf of Mexico thirty feet high. A
vessel, called the Ledbury Snow, rode out
the gale with both anchors down, and when
the waters subsidized, she found herself high
and dry among the tree-tops on Elliott's
Key.
But biologists tell us that there was once
no Gulf Stream. 1t must have been long
ages ago, when the central parts of our con-
tinent were under water, giving place for
the great current to pass up what is now
the Mississippi Valley.
The most striking fact connected with
its absence is that the climate of England
and Scotland was at that time as cold as
Labrador and Greenland.
Now, what would happen, if, when we
cut the Panama Canal, this great stream
| should find it an outlet, and pour itself in
to the Pacific Ocean? For although the
Pacific is said to be three feet and half
higher than the Atlantic, this current might
be strong enough to overpower such oppo-
sition as its superior height would Offer
1t is a question that has puzzled older heads
than yours.
How would England like it to find her
self suddenly changed to Newfoundland