The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-10-12
A. the Banks il is divided into at least


with the Polar Sea beyond Spitzbergen.
The other branch, after reaching the
Azores, bends TO the southeast and
washes the Morocco shores, where it is
again broken. A portion of it treads
along the African coast, but by far the
larger portion turns round to the west
and drifts with the trade-winds back
across the Atlantic to re-enter the Gulf
of Mexico, from which it started. In
the Gulf of Mexico it attains temper
ature of eighty degrees Fahrenheit.
This heat it retains throughout its en-
tire course TO such an extent that in
summer it is fifteen degrees and in win
ter twenty-five degrees warmer than the
adjacent water of the seas. Moe recent
surveys show that the current is not
uniform, but that it consists of alter
nate bands of warm and cold water, a
circumstance which is construed by
most scientists to indicate that the warm
water thus worms its way in bands
through the colder liquid. Its greatest
width has been variously estimated; in
all probability it exceeds two hundred
miles at certain stages of the route. On
its west and north sides its boundary
line is much more sharply defined than
on the other, the transition from the
current to the adjoining waters being so
rapid that thermometers dropped stimuli
taneously from PROV and stern have, in
some instances, shown a difference of
thirty degrees in temperature. The
banks of this ocean stream are always
more or less foggy, and the contrast be-
a 4
the deep blue tint of the stream is ex-
ceedingly marked. 1t is well known
that many local storms on the Atlantic
originate in the collision of the hot at
mosphere above the stream with the
chill breezes of the surrounding sea.
From its starting point in the Gulf until
it strikes the Azores it travels distance
of more than three thousand five hun
bred miles. Within the circuit thus
made lies the vast tract of ocean so
dreaded by the followers of Columbus,
which is now known as the Sargasso or
Grassy Sea, a region choked in some
places with seaweed and driftwood, and
SO beset with calm weather as to jeop-
ardize the safety of ships straying
thither.
One Of the most remarkable effects of
the Gulf Stream is the favorable infu-
ence it exerts on the weather of those
countries along whose shores it glides.
The moist and genial climate of the
British Isles is attributed to this cause.
On the western coast of Norway mild
weather prevails and harvests are gath
cred, whereas in corresponding ATTITUDES
OF our own country are regions of per-
petual SHOW. This marvellous influence
of the Gulf Stream has been stoutly de-
MED by some, but when we remember
that water is the most powerful reservoir
of heat, and that the great current, as
Maury shows, emits heat enough on a
winters day to raise the atmosphere of
France and the British Isles from the
freezing poir to summer heat, it is not
difficult TO conceive the beneicent effects
it must have on the northern climes of
Europe. Natives of Spitzbergen are
often amused to find drifting to their
land the products of tropical forests
borne by the Stream from South Amer
lean chimes to their own shores. This
drifting shows how well-defned is the
progress of the current in that locality.
Unquestionably the principal cause of
this phenomenon is to be found in the
constant westward movement Of the
trade-winds. These breezes, il will be
remembered, blow steadily in the neigh
borhood of the equator. They drive
the waves westward, and the effect is>to
pile up the waterson the American coast.
The waves so driven strike Cape ST.
Rogue, where they are broken into sep
arate streams, one of which is thrown
southwark, the other northward and
westward, along the coast, until it enters
the Caribbean Sea. This westward
rushing of the waters is called the equa-
torlal current, which, at its primary
stage, off the African coast, is one hun
dred and fifty miles in width and, in
the heart of the Atlantic, approximates
three hundred miles. Thus an immense
quantity of water is constantly stream
ing into the Caribbean Sea, tending to
overflow it, The flood naturally seeks
an outlet. Its most natural and easy
passage turns the point of Yucatan, and
thence around through the Gulf of
Mexico in a direction corresponding
with the motion of the hands of
watch, until it reaches the Florida Strait
once again. Contributing to the vol.
ume of the current are the currents of
the Mississippi, the Rio Grande and the
other great rivers which empty into the
gulf. The great heat which the waters
acquire in these tropical regions can be
readily understood. The tenacity with
which water retains its heat and refuses
to mix with colder water is familiar to
many who have seen the experiment
made artifcially. Nay, it is frequently
found that while there is surface cur
rent in one direction, there is an under
current in the opposite direction.
For many years the Gulf Stream was
a source of wonder and dismay. 1t was
thought by some to be subterranean in
its origin. Others who did not go so far
as this, failed to divine the true cause.
1t was only when analogous currents
were discovered in the Pacific, in the
Indian and in the Polar Oceans that the
necessity arose for theory based on
broad grounds. The rotation of the
earth was known to produce trade-winds
westward round the globe. The equa-
torial currents of all the oceans are
driven in the same direction. The
equilibrium of the seas being thus dis
turbed, the effort to regain it give rise
to the network of oceanic currents that
has in later years been unfolded. The
general effect of those mighty streams,
which are vastly greater than all the
rivers of the world combined, is to carry
tropical heat into cold seas and lands,
and to induce corresponding currents of
cool waters from the frozen regions of
the earth toward the burning shores of