The native Virginian. [volume] (Orange Court House, Va.) 1867-187?, 1870-02-18
THE GULF TREAM-LECTURE BY PRO
FESSOR MAURY.

| The announcement that Professor II.
B. Maury would lecture on the Gulf
| Stream before the Polytechnic Branch
of the American Institute, attracted a
large audience at their rooms, IN the
| Cooper Institute, lass night. A liter
the usual reading OF scientific items by
! Pr ofessor 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 and showed how 1t formed
the great commercial Highway known
as the Gulf Stream. The current, he
claimed is more than /, 900 times larger
IN volume than the Mississippi river.
| lt moves across the A :laIiic on the
! track OF q or, at circle OF the earth.
Combating the prevailing notion that
the shores and banks of New foundlaad
defiect.th the current from its natural aud
| normal path, evidence was brought to
show that it moved in obedience to the
| diurnal rotation OF tie globe on the one
hand, and on the other. that being Of
different specific gravity from the
waters of the Polar sea, it seeks to find
an equilibrium by changing places with
them.
Two new positions were advanced
by the lecturer as to this my sterious
flow OF the ocean. He denied that the
usual easterly curve of the Cult Stream
(as the map gives it), by which it is
made TO sweep towards the Azores and
around to the shores of Africa, nave
any existence. There is current
not offsht OF, apparently-recurrin in
this direction, but ii isl mere drift.
This he explained. is caused by the
"brave west Winds" or, more DR. sperly
southwest winds, which he said, sseve-
rywhero on the globe, north of the
tropic OF Cancer, are the same" The
true Gulf Stream, however flows on IN
a mighty aud resistless course. Even
as far north as HammerfesL, in Norway
tile most northerly tow n in the world,
1t makes its genial and balmy influence
felt. In 1881 the harbor of St. otans,
Newfoundla $500 mi les south OF
HaMmerfest, had 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 it's name purports. It Is not a
mere stream from the Gulf OF Mixico,
but a volume nearly as large as the
great equatorial current itself. Though
the stream as it comes through the mar
rows of Florida, IS a thousand times as
large as the 'sFather of Waters" at New
Orleans, 1t is afterward reinforced BY
an immense shaving of the main equa-
torial current known as the Northwest
branch. This body Of water, being of
the same or nearly the same tempera-
ture and specific gravity as the Gulf
Stream proper, readily unites with it
after the hitter has passed the BAHIA
mas. The lecturer then read letter
from Captain Silss Brent (the cO-work- |
err of commodore Perry in his Japan
expeditiou), whom he had consulted |
OH the views he entertained. and who,
in clear and concise statement en-
dorsed his reasoning.
If this be true, the lecturer said, the
views now entertained by geographers
of the climatic power of the Gulf
Stream must undergoa serious revision
il not declined revolution. If woa.d
no longer be regarded a. the COMPARE
lively small issues through the mai rows
Of Bermini, but stream more than
double as large, and one which was
fully equal to the office claimed for 1t,
the regions of the extreme
north, and breaking through the mas
live ice-walls which surround and
guard the avenues to the pole itself.
rhe "blue" color ard 'phosphoreseent'
eatures OF the Gulf Stream were de-
cribed and ezpleined. Professor
Marry compared the Gull Stream to
he Milky Way, bucause its warm wa
er at night was made by the myriad
Insects to glow and sparkle like sea
4 fire. -Nep York Tribune.