TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 1^7 



1838. The warm Gulf-stream closes in with the land in its northern progress at 

 Cape Hatteras, and the line between this and the cold inner currents is a nearly 

 perpendicular wall of warm and cold water in juxtaposition. At the banks of 

 Newfoundland the Arctic current flows beneath the Gulf-stream and transports 

 icebergs into its warm waters. Another feature of the Gulf-stream lately elicited 

 by Bache and other officers of the U.S.N., its bifurcation off Cape Hatteras, may be 

 attributed to the recurving of that portion of the equatorial current which flows 

 to the northward of the Bahamas. Between Porto Rico and the Bermuda Islands, 

 some singular phaenomena were observed in May 1850 by Lieut. Walsh, U.S.N., 

 the currents at the depth of 126 fathoms flowing in opposite directions on consecu- 

 tive days, generally with greater velocity, and always different in direction to the 

 surface current, indicating a sort of eddy. The Gulf-stream does not stop at the 

 Azores, as was supposed by Rennell, but a portion is propelled toward the Bay of 

 Biscay, and producing the temporary Rennell's or 'thwart- channel current, and 

 probably impelled by the prevalent S.W. wind, it reaches the western shores of the 

 British islands and the coast of Norway, causing the climates of these countries to 

 be in marked contrast to those of Greenland and Labrador in the same latitudes. It 

 also reaches the S. and W. shores of Iceland, as shown by Capt. Irminger of the 

 Danish Navy. The portion which strikes the coast of Portugal passes southwards, 

 forming the North African current, and south of Cape Verde and Cape Roxo it 

 turns to the westward into the great equatorial current, and does not probably form 

 the initial portion of the Guinea current flowing eastward into the African Bights. 

 The equatorial current, with less regularity on its eastern side, but constantly on 

 the western, flows from east to west within the tropics, and the northern portion 

 forms the commencement of the Gulf-stream ; that southward of Cape S. Roque on 

 the Brazil coast, flows southward as the Brazil current, whence it is deflected to the 

 eastward as the Southern Connecting Current across the Atlantic into the Indian 

 Ocean south of the Agulhas Bank off the Cape of Good Hope. The Agulhas cur- 

 rent flowing to the west around the Cape, and then along the west coast of Africa 

 northwards to the Bight of Biafra, enters the southern portion of the equatorial 

 current, which flows in opposition to and in juxtaposition with the Guinea current. 

 The waters thus circulate around the parallels of lat. 30° in each hemisphere, the 

 central portion of the North Atlantic on this line being known as the Sargasso (or 

 weedy) Sea. 



The Guinea Current, a warm stream setting to eastward, or in opposition to the 

 equatorial currents, along the coast of Guinea as far as Fernando Po and Princes' 

 Island, has been attributed to a prolongation of the North African current ; but 

 why this latter should turn to the east instead of to leeward or to west has not 

 been explained. It was here affirmed to be an independent stream, originating in 

 mid-ocean, in the zone of equatorial calms, between the N.E. and S.E. trade-winds, 

 and the true character of which is cleared up by the existence of a similar current in 

 the Pacific, which was first placed on the charts laid before the Meeting, and pre- 

 sently alluded to. 



In describing the currents of the Pacific Ocean, we enter upon comparatively a 

 new subject; but from a collection of observations arranged on the charts laid before 

 the meeting some new features and extended knowledge may be established. It may 

 be asserted, however, that the waters of the Pacific do not appear to move with 

 so great velocity and apparent regularity as in the North Atlantic, and this espe- 

 cially so in its south-western portions. The southernmostmovement is in the Antarctic 

 current, moving with a velocity apparently of 10 to 35 miles a day from southwards 

 towards the north and east, down to lat. 33° or 34° S. Of many particulars we are 

 still ignorant, which is to be regretted, as it has an important bearing upon the track 

 of our Australian homeward-bound ships. It is analogous to the Southern Con- 

 necting Current in the Atlantic, and, as has been demonstrated by Duperrey, it 

 strikes the west coast of Patagonia about the parallel of Chiloe, one portion passing 

 south and east around Cape Horn, and carrying the drift-wood to the Falkland 

 Islands, and even 900 miles eastward of them. This current also flows past Tristan 

 d'Acunha to the E.N.E., and also past the islands south of New Zealand. The 

 northern branch of this cold antarctic current is a remarkable one, and was first de- 

 monstrated by Humboldt in 1802, and hence called the Peruvian or Humboldt's 

 Current. It is a moving mass of cold water, of great depth, moving northwards 



