The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-02-14

FEssoR MAURY.-The announcement that
Professor T. B. Maury would lecture on
the Gulf Stream. before the Polytechnic
Branch of the American Institute, attracted
large audience ut their rooms, in the
usual reading of scientific items by Profess
sor Tilman, the speaker Of the evening was
introduced. With the aid Of several large
charts and maps, he traced the equatorial
current of the Atlantic from the Western
Coast of Africa, and showed how it formed
the great commercial highway known as
the Gulf Stream. This current, he claimed,
is more than 1000 times larger in volume
than the Mississippi river. 1t moves across
the Atlantic on the track of great circle
of the earth. Combating the prevailing
notion that the shores and banks of New
foundland defect the current from its natu-
raj and normal path, evidence was brought
to show that it moved in obedience to the
diurnal rotation of the globe on the one
hand, and, on the other, that being of
q different specific gravity from the waters
of the Polar sea, it seeks to find On equili-
brium by changing places with them.
Two new positions were advanced by the
lecturer as to this mysterious flow of the
ocean. He denied that the usual easterly
curve of the Gulf Stream las the maps give
it), by which it is made to sweep toward
the Azores and around to the shores of At
RIGA, have any existence. There is cur
rent-an offshoot, apparently-recurring in
this direction, but it is mere drift. This,
he explained, is caused by the "brave west
Winds" or, more properly, southwest winds,
which, he faid, everywhere on the globe,
north of the tropic of Cancer, are the
same.'' The true Gulf Stream, however,
flows on in mighty and resistless course.
Even as far north as Hammerfest, in Nor
way, the most northerly town in the world
it makes its genial and balmy influence felt
In 1881 the harbor of st. Johns, Newfound-
land, 1900 miles south of Hammerfest
had been frozen up as late as the month OF
June. But the harbor of Hammerfest has
never been known to be closed by ice, even
in midwinter.
Mr.. Maury advanced the idea also that
the Gulf Stream is much more than its
name purports. 1t is not mere stream
from the Gulf of Mexico, but q volume
nearly as large as the great equatorial cur
rent itself. Though the stream, as it comes
through the narrows of Florida, is q thou
sand times as large as the "Fathcr of
Waters" at New Orleans, it is afterward
reinforced by an immense shaving of the
main equatorial current known as the
Northwest branch. This body of. water
being of the same or nearly the same tenn
perature and specific gravity as the Gul
Stream proper, readily unites with it after
the latter has passed the Bahamas. The
lecturer then read letter from Captain
Silas Brent (thc co-worker of Commodore
Perry in his Japan expedition), whom hi
had consulted ON the views he entertained
and who, in a clear und concise statement
endorsed his reasoning.
If this be true, the lecturer said, the
views now entertained by geographers o.
the climatic power of the Gulf Stream mus
undergo a serious revision, if not decided
revolution. 1t would no longer be regarded
as the comparatively small issues through
the narrows of Bermini, but stream more
than double as large, and one which was
fully equal to the Office claimed for it, pene
trating the regions of the extreme north
snd breaking through the massive ice-walls
which surround and guard the avenues tC
the pole itself. The "bluc" color anc
phosphorescent features of the Gull
Stream were described and explained
Professor Maury compared the Gulf Stream
to the Milky Way, because its warm watei
at night was made by the myriad insects t
glow and sparkle like sea of fre.-Neu
York Tribune.