STUDY IV. 235 



gators. AU the bays and mediterraneans of Eu- 

 rope, as the Baltic, the Channel, the Bay of Bif- 

 cay, the Mediterranean properly fo called ; and 

 all thofe on the eaflern coaft of America, as the 

 Bay of Baffin, Hudfon's-Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, 

 as well as many others which might be mentioned, 

 are diredled, relatively to this Current, Eaft and 

 Weft ; or, to fpeak with more precifion, the 

 axes of all the openings of the Land in the Old 

 and New Worlds, are perpendicular to the axes of 

 thefe general Currents, fo that their mouth only 

 is croffed by them, and their depth is not expofed 

 to the impulfions of the general movements of the 

 Ocean. 



It is becaufe of the calmnefs of bays, that fo 

 many veflels run thither in queft of anchoring 

 ground ; and it is for this reafon that Nature has 

 .placed, in their bottoms, the mouths of moft ri- 

 vers, as we before obferved, that their waters might 

 be difcharged into the Ocean, without being driven 

 furioufly back by the diredlion of it's Currents. 

 She has employed fimilar precautions for the fecu- 

 rity of even the fmalleft ftreams which empty 

 themfelves into the Sea. There is not a fingle ex- 

 perienced feaman who does not know, that there 

 is fcarcely a creek but what has it*s little rivulet. 

 But for the Wifdom apparent in thefe difpofitions, 



the 



