and the Existence of the North-West Passage. 63 



another, but scarcely ever in the true direction ; whereas the 

 vessel, which drew more water, shewed it constantly in one 

 direction. 



Lieutenant Maury also called attention to this remarkable 

 fact, that though there be well known currents which bring 

 immense volumes of water into the Atlantic, we know of 

 none which carry it out again, and which, according to the 

 principle before stated, ought to be found running back 

 from that ocean. The La Plata, the Amazon, the Mississippi, 

 and St Lawrence, with many other rivers, run into this very 

 small ocean, and it is not probable that all of these waters 

 are taken up from it again by evaporation ; yet the sea is 

 not full. Where does the surplus go \ The ice-bearing 

 current, from Davis' Straits, which is counter to the Gulf 

 Stream, moves an immense volume of water down towards 

 the equator. The ice-bearing current which runs from the 

 Antarctic regions, and passes near Cape Horn into the 

 Atlantic, and the Lagullas current which sweeps into it around 

 the Cape of Good Hope, both move immense volumes of 

 water, and bear it along also towards the equator. This 

 water must get out again, or the Atlantic would be con- 

 stantly rising. A part of the Gulf Stream runs around North 

 Cape into the Arctic Ocean. The thermal charts now in pro- 

 cess of construction, under the direction of Lieutenant Maury, 

 at the National Observatory, prove this, as also the charts of 

 Professor Dove of Berlin. But this current probably per- 

 forms its circuit of the Arctic Ocean, and returns to the 

 Atlantic with increased volume. The great rivers of Northern 

 America, Asia, and Europe, that empty into the Frozen 

 Ocean, as well as the current from the Pacific into Behring's 

 Straits, all sources of supply, serve, in the opinion of Lieu- 

 tenant Maury, to swell the current down from Baffin's Bay 

 through Davis** Straits into the Atlantic. 



That there was an open water communication, sometimes 

 at least, from Behring's Straits to Baffin's Bay, had been all 

 but proved by the results of investigations undertaken about 

 ten years ago, at the National Observatory, with regard to 

 the habits, migrations, &c. of the whale. These investiga- 

 tions were conducted in such a manner as to shew, by a 



