20 THE WEALTH OF THE SEA 



Current and the South Equatorial Current, which 

 cross the ocean from east to west, the Labrador Cold 

 Current, and the Antarctic Current. 



The Pacific Ocean has three equatorial currents: 

 a powerful Northern Equatorial Current and a pow- 

 erful Southern Equatorial Current, which flow from 

 east to west; between these two flows a smaller, less 

 powerful counter-current from west to east. On 

 reaching the Philippine Islands, the North Equa- 

 torial Current flows northeast along the Asiatic 

 Coast as the Japan Current, the Pacific counterpart 

 of the Gulf Stream. At about Lat. 50° this current 

 flows eastward as the North Pacific Current until it 

 reaches the shores of North America, where it divides, 

 a part flowing southward along the coast of Cali- 

 fornia as the California Current, and a part flowing 

 northwest, warming the Alaskan Coast. 



Thus it is seen that the North Atlantic, South 

 Atlantic, and North Pacific oceans have important 

 equatorial currents flowing from east to west to the 

 eastern shores of the continents, and then flowing 

 along the shore until the fortieth parallel is reached, 

 then turning eastward and flowing in an enormous 

 ellipse. These currents exert important influences on 

 the earth's climate, cooling the tropical shores and 

 warming the temperate shores. In this way the sea 

 acts as a great distributor of the heat of the sun, 

 conveying about half of that which is received in the 

 tropics to higher latitudes. 



Definite currents are phenomena occurring only in 

 the surface waters of the ocean. Nevertheless there 

 is a general tendency for the colder, denser water of 



