Beaufort Republican. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1871-1873, 1873-10-16
The Gulf Stream.

On It's emergence 1rom tne Vuli VI
Mexico, the Gulf Stream has breadth
of fourteen leagues; its depth Is one
thousand feet; and the rapidity of its
motion, which at the outset, is nearly
four and half miles per hour, grad
ually diminishes, though it preserves,
nevertheless, comparatively consider
able degree of speed throughout its e1-
tended course.
Its temperature, much higher than
that of the sea it traverses, does not
vary more than half degree in every
hundred leagues. Thus it arrives even
in winter at point beyond Newfound-
land, with the abundant reserves Of
heat absorbed by its waters under the
sun of the tropics. Plunged alternate
ly in the bed of the current, and with
out its boundaries, The Thermometer in
dicates difference Of twelve, and even
sometimes of seventeen degrees.
If we compare this temperature with
that of the surrounding air, the con.
trast is still more striking. Beyond the
fortieth parallel, where the atmosphere
is colder than the standard of melting
ice. the Gulf Stream maintains an equa-
BILE temperature at more than twenty
five degrees above this point. Its waters,
like those of all seas very rich in saline
matters, are distinguished by their
depth of hue, and by their cleaning
azure reflections, defining themselves
by clear and precise lines on the green
"ground color of the ordinary ocean
waters. Up to the fortieth parallel the
| blue and emerald waves never mlngle !;
it is only on quitting this latitude that
the former overleap their boundaries,
quit their channel and spread afar over
the cold strata of the sea. Their march
at the same time slackens, and the ra-
dating action of their caloric on the at
mosphere becomes more sensible. 1t
notably mitigates the severe climates OF
Northern Europe without it England
and part of France would be doomed
to winters as rigorous as those of Lab
rador. It is owing to the Gulf Stream
that, in the north of Spitzbergen, the
limit Of eternal ice and snow, instead OF
sinking to the very level of the sea,
maintains itself at point fully $50 feet
above.
Another very extraordinary character
istic of the great American current IS
the projection which it forms above the
waters that inclose and compass it both
on the right and left without being able
to penetrate it. This projection is esti-
mated at more than sixty-five cent?
metres (about two feet.) The surface
of the current affects concave curva-
ture; and presents on its medal line q
sort of ridge or crest, on each side OF
which extend two inclined planes in
such wise that every object floating on
its surface glides to right or Left This
fact has been established by several YES
sells, whose keel, deeply immerged,
wholly obeyed the action of the princi-
pal current; while at their side light
canoes drifted en- .trauer8, carried to-
wards the borders in q direction per-
pendicular to that of the ship.
The Gulf Stream is balanced, or
compensated, by the counter-current OF
cold and but slightly salt water, which,
through Davis Strait, descends from
the Arctic Frozen Ocean in precisely
opposite direction. 1t is to the north
OF Newfoundland that this liquid ava
lanche of the pole encounters the genial
river of the South. The collision pro-
duces the first deviation Of the latter,
while, at the same time, compelling the
former to split into two branches /; one
of which plunges under the deep blue
waters and continues its southwark
route, while the other bends to the
west, skirting the entire extent OF the
American coast, and penetrating into
every bay, creek and inlet. This region
owes to it the severity of its climate,
which is much colder than that of the
European and Asiatic countries situated
under the same parallels of latitude.