The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-09-26
CURRENTS Of
THE PACIFIC
CeaseIess Drift of the
Streams Found in
Midocean.

, readers an explicit account of the
| movement of the currents of the North
Pacific. He showed that the present
current was the north equatorial NOV
| ing ceaselessly from the eastward to
the westward across the broadest part
of the ocean; thence northward past
the Philippines, Formosa, Liu Chiu and
Japan; across the northern part of the
Pacific under the Aleutian chain, and
thence southwark as the Pacific or Cal
ifornia current to reach the point of
starting. That when it leaves this
coast near the Santa Barbara channel
and swings to the southwark, the west
ern edge becomes the northwestern
edge and by the time it reaches the
| Hawaiian Islands, it is moving to the
westward. Professor Davidson now
says: 1.-The proofs of this have been
growing in number since the time of
Vancouver, who relates his meeting a
great canoe of sixty-two feet in length
in the Kaieie Oahu channel between the
islands of Oahu and Kauai; that this
canoe was made of Oregon fir; and fur
Their that King Kamehameha informed
him that there was a double canoe
made from two trees of the same wood.
We know that such trees are yet picked
up. Professor Davidson has the rec
ords of trees seen floating westward
on the northern sides of the islands,
I'll he
northern coast forests. Moreover, the
clincher is in one of the coast buoys,
bf oxen adrfft from its station, drifting
to the Hawaiian Islands and now doing
Dor Also of a lifebuoy lost from
japanese man-of-war finding its home
on the north side of the islands. Japa-
nese derelicts have also been cast upon
their shores. The proofs are so nun4er-
Gus that the most skeptical have no
ground upon which to disprove them.
IF there were no atmospherical dis
turbances there would be regularity of
movement of this great circular cur
rent, but in the tropics We have the
typhoons in the southwest region. the
northeast gales to the northeast of he
Philippines, the northern and north
western, and variable winds and storms
off Japan, the variable and stormy
winds under the Aleutian Islands; the
strong northwest, and west northwest
winds along the Pacific Coast, varied
by the southeasters. Across the IA
cific from about the latitude of twenty
nine degrees. southwark to the dol
drums. there blow the trade winds
from the northeastward These and
the westerly winds of the higher lat-
tudes are those through which all yes
sells pass in their route between the
coast and Hawaii. They are not con-
slant as to direction or strength; they
may die away almost to Gains and a
smooth sea, or blow heavily and KICK
up heavy swell. They may be so
gentle as to cause no surface drift, or
they NAV accelerate the current, ana
also give a heaving power TO the /
swell.
That is the general effect. but what :
the character of the currents througA
the different channels and passages
among the islands. and around the
capes and points. and along the lines
of coral reefs that fringe most OF the
shores. no man knows and no man can
predict save that they must be irreg-
ular in direction and in velocity.
In clear weather the navigator can
make his landfan from distance of
fifty even to more than one hundred
miles, and then govern his course by
well-known landmarks
In unfavorable weather all the ele-
ments of danger may conspire against
the most skillful and vigiiant naviga-
tor. He is blindfolded, his judgment
is supremacy taxed, and his nerve
strained.
In favorable weather. out of sight OF
land two naWigators of equal skill may
reach different conclusions as to posi-
TONS because their observations Tor
the determination of the latitude ana
longitude of the vessel are necessarily
imperfect When the morning or after
noon observations are made for longl-
t,1de the latitude is assumed from the
PREVIOUS determination; and when the
latitude is observed there must De IN
errors because low power
is necessarily used with the seXtan1.
And in beautifully fine weather there
are errors of refraction at the horizon
that no man may suspect or can de-
tect by ordinary methods
From these considerations, and some
wears of experience ProfessC David
CON put the probable error of a sea
POSITION at not less than two miles. Now
these errors naturally go into the de-
of the velocity of the cur
rent. and hence if they are not con-
slant no commander can determine
that fact by any means short of dlVl-
nation.
Every commander on this coast
caught in a fog after leaving Cape Fiat
1erv. or the Columbia River. and get
ting no sights southwark, has had ms
anxious hours when his time was up
TO get hold of the Point Reyesiren' ana
very few have even made II Wheh eA-
pected. We have been on steamship
that was TWENTY-FIVE miles southwest
of the Southeast Faral1on when her