PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE GULPH STREAM. 153 



rolling so great a volume of water into the Gulph of Mexico, that 

 we have seen fresh water taken up out of sight of land. Nor is the 

 conjecture of Dr. Franklin that the Banks of Newfoundland have 

 been formed by the deposits of the Gulph stream, very reasonably 

 founded, for by the abruptness of the Banks and the edges not present- 

 ing regularly graduated soundings, it is proved that they are not the re- 

 sult of a regular and gradual deposit. It has also been very frequently 

 asserted that no fish are to be seen in the Gulph Stream, or only 

 when passing rapidly across it ; this however is unfounded altogether, 

 for during twenty-seven days in 1830, we daily observed in it myriads 

 of dolphins and other fish which delight in a warm temperature of 

 the sea. The extroardinary prevalence of storms and lightning in the 

 Gulph Stream is another unaccountable characteristic of this most 

 remarkable phenomenon, and the causes of the immense current are 

 undoubtedly hidden in the depths of the sea. 



It is apparent that upon a correct knowledge of the rapidity of this 

 current must depend the security of navigation along the track of 

 its immense course. The prime error is undoubtedly in the common 

 practice of estimating a ship's way by an invariable rate of the current 

 as marked upon the chart at various positions of its course, since it is 

 found that the prevalence of the northerly winds in winter diminishes 

 the rapidity in a remarkable degree, whilst in the calms of summer its 

 rate is frequently doubled by the non-resistance of these winds 

 charts now many years old having, even previous to our more extended 

 information upon its course, marked it as extending a hundred de- 

 grees further to the eastward of Newfoundland in summer than in 

 winter. Another circumstance which is seldom noticed, but which 

 exercises a great influence upon a ship's way in a current, is the weight 

 and depth in the water of the vessel ; for common observation informs 

 us that a heavy body floats down a stream, by reason of its own accu- 

 mulating impetus, at a much more rapid rate than a light body ; as a 

 log will float twice as fast as a feather. The bulk of British shipping 

 which passes along the course of the Gulph Stream, consists of home- 

 ward-bound West Indiamen, and therefore this principle ought to be 

 much attended to ; for though the rate of the current, marked upon 

 the most approved charts, should be four knots abreast of the Metan- 

 zas, and five knots in the narrowest part of the Straits of Florida, we 

 are yet convinced by observation of the rate at which a light ship in 

 ballast will drift past the shore, that no secure reckoning can be kept 

 in our heavy West Indiamen, without allowing full six and seven 

 knots in a calm time, or when lying to in stormy weather. Of this 

 fact, however, the commanders of our merchant vessels have no know- 

 ledge or belief whatever ; for the action of the current is universally 

 underrated, it being found, that of the many vessels which are annually 

 wrecked upon the Florida shore, the greater proportion sail dead 

 upon the reef, altogether unconscious of being up with the position. 

 Undoubtedly the most fatal consequences result from the error of 

 underrating the rapidity of this stream ; for it is an exception to all 

 the other known currents of the ocean, and the most experienced 

 navigators, who in other situations have seldom been accustomed to 

 allow more than one or two knots for a current, are not prepared to 



M.M. No. 92. X 



