The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1881-12-03

States Navy in 1925 He devoted himself assiduously
to the duties of his profession and in 1885 published
Treatise on Navigation, which was adopted text
book Ill the Navy. An accident having rendered
h tp Ot nd r ng
tensively on such subjects as the Gulf Strednr
National DefeRses. Overland Communication qCih the
Pacific, etc. To his foresight and influence due
the expeditions for exploring the Amazon and the
Rio de la Plata. Under his direction the National
Observatory speedily assumed an equal rank with
the best similar institutions in the world Lieutenant
Maury's labors in the department of Hydrography
give him title to lasting and honorable fame HIS
wind and current charts and the accompanying book
of Sailing Directions must be regarded as the mostim
portant work of the century in its bearing on navi
CATION. In 1854 Mr.. Maury visited Europe and eX-
cited attention by his inquiry into the ocean current
local Winds etc. In illustration of these subjects he
published his celebrated Physical Geography Of the
! Sea, with charts and diagrams, which has been
translated into several languages Both of our eX
tracts are from this work
There is river in the ocean. In the
severest droughts it never fails, and in the
mightiest floods it never overfows. Its
banks and it's bottom are of cold water
while its current is of warm. The Gulf
of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is
in the Arctic Seas 1t is the Gulf Stream
There is in the world no other such majes-
tic flow of waters Its current is more
rapid than the Mississippi or the Amazon
and its volume more than thousand
times greater.
The currents of the ocean are among the
most important of its movements They
carry on a constant interchange between
the waters of the poles and those of the
equator, and thus diminish the extremes OF
heat and cold in every zone.
The sea has its climates as well as the
land They both change with the latitude
but one varies with the elevation above
the other with the depression below, the
sea level The climates in each are regu-
lated by circulation but the regulators are
on the one hand, winds; on the other
currents.
The inhabitants of the ocean are as
much the creatures of climate as are those
of the dry land for the same Almighty
hand which decked the lily and cares for
the sparrow fashioned also the pearl and
feeds the great whale, and adapted each to
the physical conditions by which his prOvi-
dence has surrounded it. Whether Of the
land or the sea, the inhabitants are all his
creatures, subjects of his laws, and agents
in his economy The sea, therefore, we
may safely infer, has its offices and duties
to perform; so, may we infer, have its cur
rents; and so, too, its inhabitants conse-
quently, he who undertakes to study Its
phenomena must cease to regard it as a
waste of waters He must look upon it as
part of that exquisite machinery by
which the harmonies of nature are pre-
served, and then he will begin to perceive
the developments Of order and the evidences
of design.
From the Arctic Seas cold current
flows along the coasts Of America, to re-
place the warm water sent through the
Gulf Stream to moderate the cold Of West
ern and Northern Europe. Perhaps the
best indication as to these cold currents
may be derived from the fishes Of the sea.
The whales first pointed out the existence
of the Gulf Stream by avoiding its warm
waters Along the coasts of the United
States all those delicate animals and marine
productions which delight in warmer waters
are wanting; thus indicating, by their alb,
sence, the cold current from the north now
known to exist there In the genial warmth
of the sea about the Bermudas on one hand
and Africa on the other, we find in great
abundance those delicate shell-fsh and cora
formations which are altogether wanting In
the same latitudes along the shores of South
Carolina.
No part of the world affords more diff:
fcult or dangerous navigation than the
approaches of the northern coasts Of th>
United States in winter. Before the
warmth of the Gulf Stream was known, {
voyage at this season from Europe to New
England, New York, and even to the capes
of the Delaware or Chesapeake, was many
times more trying, difficult, and dangerous
than it now is. In making this part ot
the coast vessels are frequently met by
snow-storms and glales which mock the
seaman's strength and set at naught hi,
skill, In little while his bark becomes a
mass of ice; with her crew frosted anC
helpless, she remains ohedient onl ly to hel
helm, and is kept away for the Gulf Stream
After few hours run she reaches its edge
and almost at the next bound passes from
the midst of winter into sea at summer
heat. Now the ice disappears from he
apparel and the sailor bathes his stiffeneC
limbs in tepid waters. Feeling himself in
vigorated and refreshed with the genia
warmth abont him. he realizes out there a
sea the fable of Antaeus and his mothe
Earth. He rises up and attempts to maxi
his port again, and is again, perhaps, a
rudely met and beat back from the north
west; but each time that he is driven of
! from the contest he comes forth from thi
stream, like the ancient son of Neptune
stronger and stronger, until, after man,
days. his freshened strength prevails, anc
at last triumphs and enters his haven IL
safety, though in this contest he sometime
falls to rise no more.
The ocean currents are partly the resul
of the immense evaporation which take
place in the tropical regions, where the Sc;
greatly exceeds the land in extent. Th'
enormous quantity Of water there carried
off by evaporation disturbs the equilibrium
of the seas; but this is restored by per
petual flow of water from the poles. Whel
these streams of cold water leave the pole
they flow directly toward the equator but
before proceeding far, their motion is de
fected by the diurnal motion of the earth
At the poles they have no rotary motion
and although they gain it more and NOR
in their progress to the equator, which re
wolves at the rate of thousand miles al
hour, they arrive at the tropics before the.
have gained the same velocity of rotation
with the intertropical ocean. On that ac
count they are left behind, and, conse
quently, flow in direction contrary to tn
diurnal rotation of the earth. Hence th'
whole surface of the ocean for thirty de
grees on each side of the equator flows ii
a stream or current three Thousand mile
broad from east to west. The trade winds
which constantly blow in one direction
combine to give this great Equatorial Cur
rent mean velocity of ten or eleven mile
in twenty-four hours. sasr asaAnS
Where it not for the land, such woult
! n