CONSERVATION OF DEEP SEA BEDS. 1 029 



As the action of the Gulf Stream is an important 

 factor in considering the temperature of the Channel and 

 the Bay of Biscay, the following lucid account thereof may 

 prove both instructive and interesting :- 



The western shores of these islands are washed bv the 



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great north-easterly current or drift of the Atlantic known 

 as the Gulf Stream, to which, as is well known, we are 

 indebted for a geniality of climate, especially on our west- 

 ern coasts, such as is not elsewhere enjoyed in similar 

 latitudes. The Gulf Stream is part of the general oceanic 

 circulation of the globe. It may be traced all the way 

 from the Indian Ocean. From the regions of the South 

 Atlantic, near the western coast of Africa, it follows the 

 north-westerly trend of the land, passing into the Caribbean 

 Sea, thence sweeping round the Gulf of Mexico, and rush- 

 ing through the Straits of Florida as a great contracted 

 river, 30 miles broad and 350 fathoms deep, with a velocity 

 of 4 miles an hour and a temperature of 85 Fah. The 

 stream is continued north-eastward at first, nearly parallel 

 with the American coast. As the flow is continued the 

 warm stream becomes outspread, its temperature lowered, 

 its speed slackened, and portions of it are separated and 

 deflected from the main course. The prevalence of south- 

 westerly winds, and the natural effect of the rotation of the 

 earth on its axis, serve to maintain the north-easterly flow 

 after the original impulse has abated. The stream is con- 

 tinued past the British Islands into the Sea between Ice- 

 land and Norway, where its speed, it has been calculated, 

 does not exceed i to 2^ miles a day, and on to the Arctic 

 regions about Spitzbergen, where its presence has been 

 manifested by the casting ashore of West Indian seeds. 

 Even in those high latitudes it is still appreciable as a 

 distinct and moving current. On the eastern side of Spitz- 



