WHERE CURRENTS RIP 69 



— billions and trillions of microscopic creatures 

 manifest to us only by a tint. I fished up a many- 

 branched bamboo tree-top about twelve feet long, 

 which, for many seasons, must have waved in the 

 breeze fifty feet in the air in some distant jungle. 

 Now its slender side branches all seemed in full 

 flower, tipped and beaded with a myriad ivory barn- 

 acle cups, swaying on their little stems, the whole 

 looking for all the world like a gigantic spray 

 from a Japanese cherry-tree in April. 



As to the physical reactions of my great Cur- 

 rent Rip, at five-thirty on the afternoon of the first 

 day we steamed into the center, faced eastward, 

 which was up wind and up current, and there lay 

 all night. During that time we drifted eleven miles 

 to the west, the current being about one and three- 

 tenths knots, and we turned completely around 

 twice, but never left the heart of the rip. We rolled 

 slightly all night and three times I was awakened 

 by what sounded like breakers, which proved to 

 be the rip near by, the sea in the distance showing 

 calm and quiet in the moonlight. 



During two days we repeated this experience 

 three times, with the invariable result of swinging 

 up wind and current, then vibrating slightly from 

 side to side as first one, then the other current 

 pushed us toward the dead center. I tested the 

 temperature a quarter of a mile on each side of the 

 central line, and found that the southern current 

 was four degrees colder at the surface, and two 

 degrees as far down as five hundred metres. The 

 current on the south side flowed about two and 



