Evening star., 1905-11-06
vAGARIEs OF GULF STREAM.
New Ocean Researches Needed in the
Interest of Navigation.


From the New York Herald.
The recent vagaries of the gulf stream
observed by several transatlantic liners
and other vessels strikingly Illustrate the
need of new and more extensive ocean re-
searches. 1t is true that the late phe-
nomenal movements of the main Atlantic
current were ephemeral. but while they
lasted navigation was considerably affect
ed. Some westward bound steamers en-
countering the very strong current fell off
in their speed a knot and a half an hour.
One vessel the steam yacht varuna. was
four days In the warm gulf current and
her owner. Mr.. Eugene Higgins. who was
on board. has published in the European
edition of the Herald an admirable and
time. In commenting editorially upon this
record our foreign edition says:
Were every vessei-yacht, trader or pas
senger steamer-that enters the gulf
stream to record systematically a similar
series of observations in very few years
scientists would be supplied with price
less mass of statistics. The utility Of hy-
biographical expeditions is minimzed by
the fact that the number of observations
taken is necessarily small and that they
do not embrace sufficiently extended Pc
riod of time. Data gathered on the system
just recommended would be free from both
defects. and study of them could not fail
to throw light on obscure problems relat-
ing to oceanic circulation
This suggestion will greatly interest sea-
men, as 1t points out need which they
have long felt. Modern pilot charts give
the navigator the average. or mean. move
pents of the sea deduced from long
ries of observations. These data are very
n q a
knowledge of the extreme fluctuations of
the ocean which his ship is liable to en-
counter at any period of her voyage. For
the welfare and safety of navigation it Is
also essential that more exact knowledge
than we now have should be obtained re-
specting both the seasonal and abnormal
changes in position and velocity of the
principal surface currents in the great
highways of ocean commerce.
new and most promising branch Of
ocean climatology could be created by the
collection and publication month by month
throughout each year In the pilot charts Of
abnormal variations of surface water tenn
peratures over all the oceans. To be of
the the greatest scientific and practical
value the system should be extended to all
the great oceans and 1t should pre-emi-
nently include the tropical zone-the capa-
cious furnace in which the solar heat is
perpetually stored up and from which 1t
is perennially distributed to every part of
the globe.
like progress has been made In oceanogra-
ply during recent years, numerous detacn-
ed observa tions like those of the Varupa
have been accumulated which are now
available capital Of photographic science.
These later data, gained by immense labor
Of seamen, clearly indicate the existence
Of complete planetary circulation of the
sea from the equator to either pole.
They prove that the seas abysmal
depths, which no rays of the MONDAY sun
ever penetrate, are the abodes Of teeming
visions of the animal kingdom inhabiting
the surface waters and constituting a
world of life all dependent for It's daily
food upon transportation from remote re-
gions of the ocean surface. The needful
supply of oxygen and other food elements
could not reach the fauna of the deep sea II
there were not perptual flow over the
bed of surface waters coming orfg!-
nally from distant oceans where they were
in contact with the atmosphere and had
become charged with oxygen of the free air.
the Icy antarctic current moving north
ward off the east coast of South America
as an underfow actually creeps over the
equatorial sea floor into the North Allan
tic basin, while the corresponding Arctic
current, after passing to the southwark of
the Newfoundland Banks, dips down in the
latitude of Nantucket and pursues Its
course till it reaches Its goal in the bed OF
the equatorial ocean.
In furthering the investigation of these
phenomena maritime nations will have a
practical benefits to commerce and naviga-
ton, and all vessels should cooperate more
actively than ever in advancing such syS-
tematiC ocean researches.