The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-05-28
From Hearth and Home.
The Gulf Stream.

he saw on its shores bits of strange
tropical wood and drifting sea
weeds, foreign to any cold climate
and his minds eye instantly pictur
ed for him western continent which
had sent these wallis to that icy
coast. But his vision was not sharp
and clear enough to discern the won,
derful stream that foated them
steadily on for thousands of miles,
perhaps from that very island of San
Salvador where he afterward landed /;
carrying by circuitous route, thro'
sea, gulf, and straits, these messen-
gers sent to tempt the northern peo-
pie over TO the luxurious climate of
! which they bore tidings; and at the
same time supplying, unpaid, and
even unthanked, the grandest heat
ling apparatus in the world, by which
the British Isles, Norway, Denmark,
and Ireland are rendered habitable.
"What do you know of the Gull
Stream ?" was school committees
question to a little boy, the other
day.
81 have never seen it,n 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 q few minutes to-day.
The tropical seas represent the
great caldron of hot water from
which run the pipes of Gods grand
apparatus Tor warming thes e continen-
tai 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 north
ern shore of that continent, rushes
through the Caribbean Sea, where
it gathers cocoa nuts, sea weeds, and
bits of tropical wood, whirls around
the Gulf of Mexico with force that
keeps all its waters in motion, gath
ers into one mighty current volume
of water equal to three thousand
Mississippi rivers, and pours itself
out of the Florida Straits. And
now mark its course.
1t has been said that, if we had a
cannon capsble of throwing ball
three thousand 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 Gull
Stream.
As it shoots out of the Straits, it
takes a shape of its own, q color of
its own, and, indeed, of so decided q
character, that it persists in holding
itself quite distinct from the sur
sounding waters. 1t is about two
feet higher in the middle than at the
sides, and thus is roof-shaped. The
sailors ascertain this by lowering q
boat and noticing its drift to one side
or the other, while the heavier YES
sci, drawing more water, cleaves its
way through the current undisturbed
by its surface shape. If we are sail
ing along the ridge of this roof, we
may throw out two bottles, one on
either side of the vessel, and that on
the eastern side will inevitably visit
Ireland, Scotland, or some other
portion of western Europe, while the
other will as surely be picked up on
the American shore--neither can go
up hill or climb the ridge of that
roof. The color of the stream is
darker blue than the surrounding
ocean, and the water is salter, which
gives it greater power to corrode the
copper on 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 moun-
tains of iron from zero to the melting
point, and keep in flow from them a
molten stream of metal greater than
the Mississippi river.
1t gathers its heat in the tropics,
but why is it not all lost on this long
voyage2 Do you know that cold
earth would take away the 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 q cushion OF cold water interposed
below.
1t seems to possess an almost mag
ical power of attracting every float
ing thing that is dropped into Allan
tic waters. You know that sailors
Iare in the habit of throwing over
board 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. i have
heard of a map showing the tracks
OF more than one hundred of these
bottles, and, sooner or later, every
bottle had passed through the Gull
Stream. The winds and storms toe
tend toward it from all directions
and the sailors call it a "weather.
breeder"
When it reaches the outlet OF Bsf.
ffa's Bay, it mests the icsbergs com
iing down from the north, bringing