NAUTICAL REMARKS. 385 



journals of the packets for one year would afford valuable in- 

 formation on the subject. In the passage of the Blossom we 

 carried the N.E. trade from TenerifFe to 80 N., and met the 

 S.E. wind in 50 30' N. and 25o 50' W., which carried us to 

 Cape Frio. The trades were steady, and in the northern he- 

 misphere fresh. 



From the time of leaving Teneriflfe until we lost the N.E. 

 trade, the current set S. 54° W. 115 miles in ten days, or at 

 the rate of 11^ miles per day. With the change of wind oc- 

 curred an immediate alteration in the direction of the current, 

 and the next twenty- four hours we were set N. 860 E. twenty- 

 three miles. The meeting of the currents was marked by a 

 rippling of the water, which could be seen at a considerable 

 distance. The four succeeding days the current ran between S. 

 450 E. and S. 89o E. at the average rate of thirteen miles per day. 

 During this time we changed our position from 7° 21' N. lati- 

 tude, and longitude 26o 58' W. to 3o 56' N., and 26o 44' W., 

 and had had the S.E. trade one day. We now got into a 

 strong N.W. current, which ran between N. 58^ W. and N. 

 72o W. at an average rate of twenty-two and a half miles per 

 day, until we made Fernando Noronha. 



From Fernando Noronha the current changed its direction, 

 and ran between S. 78o W. and S. 21" W. at an average of 

 twenty-seven miles per day, until a hundred miles due E. of 

 Cape Ledo. W^e stood on the southward ; and as we neared 

 the land about Cape Augustine the velocity of the current 

 abated, and our daily error was reduced to seven miles 8. 52° W. ; 

 but as we drew off the land, still continuing to the south- 

 ward, the current again increased, and became variable. The 

 first hundred miles from Cape Augustine it ran S. 87° W. 

 twenty six miles ; the next due S. twenty-seven miles ; the fol- 

 lowing S. 76o W. twenty-one miles, and then S. 8O0 W. 

 eleven miles, until our arrival off Cape Frio, when the whole 

 amount of current from Teneriffe was two hundred and se- 

 venty-four miles S. 57" W^. 



From this it appears that the N.E. trades propelled the 

 waters in a S. VV. by W. direction, at the rate of eleven and 

 a half miles per diem* ; and the S.E. trades to the W.N.W., 



* All the rates are averages. 



