56 Questions Jbr Solution relating to Meteorology, 



along the edges, and towards the centre of the sea of Sargasso, 

 with the necessary length of line. 



, Temperature of Currents. — Every one is acquainted with the 

 works of Franklin, Blagden, Jonathan WiUiams, M. de Hum- 

 boldt, and Captain Sabine, on the Gulf- Stream. No one now 

 doubts that this Gulf-Stream is an equinoctial current, which, 

 after having made the circuit of the Gulf of Mexico, and issued 

 from the Straits of Bahama, moves from south-west to north- 

 east, at a certain distance from the coast of the United States, 

 retaining all the time, like a stream of warm water, a greater or 

 Jess degree of the temperature it had acquired between the tro- 

 pics.. This current divides into two branches. One of these 

 visits the coasts of Ireland, Orkney, Shetland, and Norway, 

 having the effect, it is said, of moderating the climate : the other 

 gradually describes a curve, returns by its former route, cross- 

 ing the AiXdiiiiic Jrom north to south, usually to the west of the 

 Azores, and sometimes at no great distance from the coasts of 

 Spain and Portugal. After a very long circuit, its waters again 

 join the equinoctial current from which they issued. 



Along the coast of America, the position, breadth and tem- 

 perature of the Gulf-Stream have been so well determined under 

 each latitude, that a work has been published, without any ap- 

 pearance of empiricism, under the title of Thermometrical No- 

 vigation, for the use of navigators in these latitudes. It is very 

 desirable that the returning branch should be known with the 

 same certainty. Its excess of temperature almost disappears 

 when it reaches the parallel of Gibraltar, and it can be accu- 

 rately determined only by the mean of a great number of obser- 

 vations. The officers of the Bonite will greatly facilitate this 

 investigation, if they determine the temperature of the ocean 

 every half hour, and from the meridian of Cadiz, as far as that 

 of the most western of the Canaries, with the precision of tenths 

 of a degree. 



We have just spoken of a current of warm water ; our navi- 

 gators, on the other hand, meet with a current of cold water 

 along the coasts of Chili and Peru. This current, after leaving 

 the parallel of Chiloe, moves rapidly from south to north, and 

 conveys, as far as the parallel of Cape Blanc, the cold water of 



