38 



things of the sea. There are few who have not heard of this 

 warm stream, which has its rise in the Gulf of Mexico, and 

 flows on steadily to the North East until it touches the banks 

 of Newfoundland, when it takes a more easterly direction and 

 reaches the western shores of Great Britain, the Shetland Isles, 

 and goes onward to the Arctic seas. It causes our mild and damp 

 atmosphere. Its effects on the Shetland Isles is very decidedly 

 marked by their being almost free from snow or ice. When this 

 stream starts from the Gulf of Mexico its rate is as much as five 

 miles an hour, which gradually decreases as it flows onwards and 

 widens out; its depth at starting is between 300 and 400 

 fathoms, and it gets shallower steadily as it gets further to the 

 North East. During its travel it runs up an inclined plane, the 

 cold water from Baffin's Bay and Labrador runs under it on the 

 banks of Newfoundland, for the two streams will not mix. Its 

 inclined plane is estimated to be about three inches to the mile. 

 The Gulf Stream is as well defined at its edge as a river, and the 

 water is higher in the centre than at the sides. In crossing its 

 margin the ship's bow may be in the cold stream with the 

 temperature of the sea as much as 8 to 10 degrees or more 

 lower than that of the water at the stern. My object in touching 

 on the Gulf Stream is to explain that accompanying it is an 

 immense quantity of ocean life in the form of small fish, 

 crustaceans and mollusca, which take refuge in a graceful weed, 

 Fucus Natans' In the Sargasso Sea this weed is in immense 

 fields floating on the water, and almost deadens the way of a 

 sailing vessel in passing through it in light winds. I have often 

 hooked up pieces of it when crabs and small fish fell out on 

 deck, some of the former being as much as two inches across 

 the back. Now I believe a small portion of this weed goes 

 along the western edge (although Maury says not), carrying its 

 life with it. Considering the enormous number of living 

 creatures that are spawned so abundantly in the warm water of 

 the Gulf Stream which must cease to live upon meeting the 

 Polar current on the banks of Newfoundland, my contention 

 is that this life does materially assist in the supply of food to the 

 cod-fish on those banks. What is the cause of the Gulf Stream 

 has always puzzled philosophers. Its water is Salter than that of 

 the ocean on either side, and is of an indigo blue colour. In 

 the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico the water is very salt, 

 while that of the Baltic and North Sea are httle more than 

 brackish, thus there is a constant stream of strongly impregnated 

 salt water flowing on to mix with the fresher, and preserve the 

 equilibrium. A stream much resembling this, but not so large, 

 is to be found having its source in the North Pacific and flowing 

 on along the coast of the Philippines and Formosa, and the West 

 Coast of Japan. This is called the " Kuro Siwa," or Black 



