South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-01-17
The Cult Stream,
as Representative
of Nature Myths

y
ago popular fancy would have
turned IL into a sea-god. like the
sacred river Alpheus, tabled to flow
under the Ionian sea from Ellis TO
Sicily. where il rose in the blue
fountain of Arethusa- Even in this
scientific age the Gulf stream has
all the charm OF legend.
Sixty-two years ago Matthew
Maury, in his Physical Geography
OF the Sea-" wrote the words that,
for hundreds of thousands of minds.
persOnified the Gulf stream, and
placed il in the unperishing myth
ology OF popular science.
There is a river in the ocean. In
the severest droughts il never fails.
and in the mightiest floods 1t never
overfiows. The Gulf of Mexico is
its fountain and its mouth is in the
Arctic seas. It's volume is more than
a thousand times greater than that
Of the Mississippi or the Amason.
It's waters, as far as the Carolina
coasts. are Of an indigo blue. often
One-half of a vessel may be seen
floating in the Gulf stream water
while the other half is in the com
mon water OF the sea, so sharp Is
the line, and such the want OF Atm
ity between those waters"
These are facts poetized by vivid
imagination. Since Maury wrote.
the Gulf stream has not diminished
in wonderfulness. but the facts
known about il have been rendered
more definite, as we'll as vastly in
creased in number. Prof A. G.
Mayer OF the Carnegie institution,
writing in the Journal Of the Amer
lean Museum of Natural History.
gives a different. though an equa;'y
interesting description of the Gulf
stream.
The popular conception OF II as a
mighty river flowing over the ocean
is. he says, quite erroneous. for
ocean currents are more Of the ma
ture of eddies or swirls, those af-
fecting the surface being counter
balanced by others i'm the depths
still ne also says: Through the
narrow passage between the BAHIA
mas and Florida there pours the
true Gulf stream. flowing north
N
an hour. Although often checked
by northerly winds. or accelerated
by favoring breezes this vast body
of water rushes as a mighty river
out into the free eXpanse OF the
ocean TO be lost i'm the wide world
eddy that passes northward be-
tween our shores and Bermuda TO
bend ever eastward and finally.
when less than half way across the
Atlantic. to die into a mere drift
borne still eastward, by the prevail
ing winds To the shores of grateful
Europe"
Europe is not grateful" tor moth
ing. IL is confessed that the genial
influence of the Gulf stream reaches
its shores, and the ocean river pic
tured by Maury appears, after all.
simply TO be shortened so that its
mouth" is found not in the Arctic
seas. but i'm the eddying bosom OF
the mid-Atlantic.
DR.. Mayer correCts an erroneous
idea concerning the Arctic current.
which is commonly spoken OF as
flowing down our northern Atlantic
coasts between the shore and the
warm waters of the Gulf stream.
The true Arctic current. he points
out, consists of clear green water,
which sheers out into the open At
lantic from the eastern shore of
Newfoundland. bearing icebergs
within il far out into the mid-Atlan-
tic, never down our New England
coast"
But it is from the fog haunted
region OF Nova Scotia" that comes
the long. gray streak Of cold wa
ter. clinging 10 our coast, which
Gives the raw chill to winds blow
ing over the ocean upon our shores;
and the prevailing northeast gales
from November TO April drive the
cold waters steadily southwark so
that Arctic marine animals flourish,
at this season. off the New Jersey
coast Even Florida is not exempt,
as all who have experienced the
rush of a black norther' along her
shores must know"
Occasionally the Gulf stream. or,
as DR.. Mayer prefers 10 call IT, that
vast, unsteady, but dominant swirl
Of tropical surface waters into the
North Atlantic" gives us a little re-
venge for the glacial experiences TO
which foggy Nova Scotia's long
gray streak" so persistently subjects
us, and we get a soft breath of sun
kissed air along the shivering coast.
while a few OF the bright-cOlored
inhabitants Of the tropic seas ven
ture into the waters Offshore. Among
these is the iridescent Portuguese
man-of-war," purple sail from
CULTS enchanted. a special crystal of
the sea, which seems too frail to
survive the slightest whipping OF
the ocean breezes (although IL defies
the fiercest hurricanes), and too
beautiful 10 require other nourish-
ment than the mimic rainbows that
fash about il (although IL has hun
dreds of greedy mouths" ready TO
devOur the little creatures that un-
warily touch it's paralyzing tenta-
cles). An exquisite glass model OF
this strange animal may be seen in
the American museum.
Dr. Mayer calls attention 20 the
significant fact that blue is the pre-
vailing color of the floating ami
mails OF the tropics. just as blue is
the hue OF the waters in which they
dwell. But this leads 10 another
l. H.