The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-10-12
OUR STORY TELLER.
THE GULF STREAM ASTRAY.
I New York Herald

New York HeraldI
The brig Dirgo, Captain Coffin, whose
arrival at this port was announced in
the Herald, brings news which will be
surprise TO navigators and students of
physical geography. The vessel left
Marseilles July 9th, and touched at Glib
raltar twenty days later. When she
reached the edge of the great oceanic
current known as the Gulf Stream,
between longitudes 81 and 57-viz:
about seven hundred miles east of New
York-the Captain, who had steered to
keep well clear of the mighty river,
found his brig all at once to rush into
the current. AT first he inclined to the
opinion that this unexpected encounter
with the mysterious stream had resulted
from error in his reckoning, or "get-
ting the sum-" This, however, seemed
improbable, inasmuch as similar oe-
currence had taken place when he was
crossing the same spot two years previ-
ously. On the next day careful observa-
tons were made, and these were checked
and verified subsequently to such de-
gree that the commander came to the
conclusion that the chart of the stream
in those longitudes is incorrect. His
calculations place the limits of the cur
rent full sixty miles south of the posi-
tious they hold ON the chart. The use
fulness of this discovery to the COM
mercial world can not be over-estimated.
The error has extended over three de-
grees of longitude. Many bark, seek
ing to avoid or to find the stream, as the
necessity might be, has been doomed to
~ L.
steamers, travelling close 10 the northern
bank of the Atlantic current, are often
compelled to seek refuge within its hos
pitable borders from the fury of the hur-
ricane. One may well imagine the
chagrin and disappointment of sailors
in the past, who endeavored to run
southwark into this current, but found
no stream to harbor them from the
cyclone.
1t is not merely as a haven of relief
that this stream has proved of import
ance to the nsvigators of the Atlantic.
Upon the correct knowledge of its loca-
ton, its limits, its velocity, its tempera-
ture and its variations depends the safety
of many a vessel. Before its direction
and extent were made known to the
world, the disadvantages to which mer-
chant vessels were put, and the actual
losses sustained through untoward en-
counters with this stream, were cOnsid-
cradle. 1t was in the heart of this stu.
pendous ocean river that Columbus and
his companions found themselves when
they struck sea covered far and wide
with driftwood, and decaying yegeta-
ton swept into the ocean from the coast
of some tropical clime-a circumstance
which filled them with dread, and him
with bright hopes of yet seeing the new
land. This phenomenon of drifting
trees in mid-ocean exists to this very
day. The average reader may best real
ize the Importance and the great adyan-
tages of the Gulf Stream, and the dis
coveries connected with it, when he
peruses the nature and description of
the great current.
The Gulf Stream is a vast warm river
of varying width and depth, flowing
with variable velocity through the
Atlantic Ocean. 1t rushes through the
surrounding waters as though it moved
between rocky banks, refusing to mix
with the adjoining walls of cold water,
and pursuing its journey for hundreds
of miles without materially diminish
ing its heat. Properly speaking, the
stream can not be said to begin or to end
al any particular place, for it makes
tour of the Atlantic, and returns again
to the place whence it started, keeping
up its circulation as increasingly as the
wonderful river that tumbles down the
rocks of Niagara. The causes of the
stream will be alluded to after the cir
cult it makes is described. Its force
becomes visible to the northwest of
Cuba, where it proceeds family like
feeble tide in an easterly direction.
Passing with increased force through
the Florida Strait, it strikes the Bahama
Bank, which defects it to the north.
Here its width is about thirty miles and
depth about two thousand feet. Leav-
ing the Bahamas, it rushes northward
along the coast with gradually diminish
ing depth and velocity, and keeping
about one hundred miles from the coast
until it reaches Cape Hatteras Near
the Florida Ke,ys its swiftness reaches
five miles per hour. At Cape Hatteras
it attains less than one half of that We
locity, but has w. 18th Of seventy-fve
miles. The projection. OF the coast at
the Cape aforesaid seems 70 uenect again
the course of the stream IT leaves the
Cape with north-easterly m. 'uon, and,
increasing in width, gradually L. 7ceolng
from the shore until It reaches the treat
Bank of Newfoundland Here it O. IL
ides with river of cold water that,
comes from the Arctic seas. The strik-
ing difference of temperature at this
point cools the vapor-laden air over the
stream, thus giving rise to the dense
fogswhich rest perpetually around "the
BankH," as travellers to Europe have
often observed. And now the vast cur
rent undergoes peculiar changes,