The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-01-05
RIVER IN THE OCEAN.
S6uoh Is in Fact the Benefcent
Gulf Sire am. !.

"A Great Dispenser of Heat and Moisture
to Which the British Islands and West.
ern Europe Generally owe So Mach
"A Trade Wind Current.
That greatest and most wonderful of
all the great bodies Of water on the
earth-the gulf stream-has been the
subject of more extensive and exhaus-
tive study and research by our govern
ment than that of any other country
For years the coast survey steamer
Blake has from time to time anchored
in the various portions of the gulf
stream and the results of her re-
searches cannot help being of great in
terest to the vast majority of thinking
people, and of inestimable benefit to
all persons interested in navigation.
whether in the transatlantic trade or the
eoastwise trade.
The great river of the Atlantic,
known as the gulf stream, from the
gulf of Mexico to the Azores, is three
thousand miles in.length and it's great
est breadth is one hundred and twenty.
At first, says the Providence journal.
Ats speed is four miles an hour, but this
gradually declines as it becomes more
difuse. In the straits of Florida its
temperature is eighty-three degrees, or
nine degrees above the surrounding
water, and off Newfoundland, in win
ter, it is twenty-five or thirty degrees
warmer than the surrounding seas,
thus causing the dense fog of those re-
gions 1t is great dispenser of heat
and moisture in it's course. To it's in
fuence are owing the verdure of the
British Islands and the mildness of the
climate of western Europe. compared
with countries elsewhere of CORE
spending latitude. It is of deep in.
digo blue 80 long as it's current is deep
and mario ', said to be caused by its
holding i'll suspension the finest parti-
cles OF the river-silt brought down bv
the Mississi ppi. The line of demarca-
tion between the gulf stream and the
adjacent waters is so marked that
vessel may be seen floating one
half in the gulf stream and the
other half i'll the common waters of the
seas. and two buckets let down, one at
the bow and the other at the stern.
will draw up water different in TEMPER
allure by no less than thirty degrees.
The late Lieut.. G. NJ. Bache discovered
band of water SO much colder than
the rest that he called it the cold
wall the cold water appearing to con-
fine the hot water as if by wall on
the inshore side. It's distance from
Sandy Hook is from two hundred and
thirty to two hundred and eighty miles;
It's distance from Cape May is between
one hundred and thirty-two and one
hundred and seventy eight miles.
Inside of the ''cold wall" there is a
warm band, aud then the cold water of
the shore. The axis OF the stream
takes in general the curve of the coast
below rather than above the water, be-
Ing turned to the eastward by the
shoals off the southern coast of New
England. The warm water of the gulf
stream rests on cold current flowing
toward Cape Florida the coolest water
keeping near the Atlantic coast, below
the surface if not at it. By observa-
lions at several points along the coast
In four hundred fathoms, between
Sandy Hook and Cape Florida, the
surface temperature exceeding so de-
grees, the thermometer indicated 1873
to IS degrees; off Hatteras, in 1000
tatholns, 40 degrees. The warm water
of the gulf stream is of very different
depths at different points of it's course,
and in different parts of any one of the
sections across it.
The cause of the gulf stream and of
most ocean currents is directly or indi-
rectly due to the wind Every wind
produces a slight movement of the
water over which it blows BY its fric-
ton on the PARTICLES of the surface
water. AS the upper particles acquire
q movement: the Same motion is trans
united to the lower particles, thus
forming Il current. With the trades
predominating as they do from the
eastward, and persistently blowing
over the same area, the current set M
extends to seventy or eighty fathoms
deep, which maintains its average We
1ocity in spite of the daily variations in
its producing cause. Any current,
upon meeting an obstruction, must es-
cape in some direction. The current
from the southeast trades reaches the
South American coast in the vicinity of
Cape st. Regen. and It thereupon di-
s!vides into branches, one flowing to the
southwark, along the coast of Brazil,
and the other toward the West Indies
The current from the northeast trades,
flowing in the general direction of the
wind, meets the obstruction of the
coast Of South America and of the
Windward islands, while the remain
der passes along the western side of the
West Indian islands toward the coast of
the United States. The current enter
ing the Caribbean sea is driven to the
westward until it meets the obstruc-
tion of the coast of Honduras.
A Dif1c-1lt Sum.
Kate Sanborn tells, in abandoning
an Adopted Farm" a story Of a big boy
in country school. who was clever
enough in some studies, but hopelessly
deficient in mathematics The teacher.