78 BBPORT — 1853. 



along the American coast, as far as Cape Blanco, whence it is deflected to the 

 W.N.W. towards the Galapagos Islands on the equator, where it produces some 

 singular effects : there appears to be a constant struggle between these cold waters 

 and those of the very warm counter current to the northward. Henceforward this 

 current must be considered as forming the initial portion of the great South Equa- 

 torial current, which flows in a westerly direction between 4° N. and 26° S. But 

 in its progress it has many variations, in its eastern portion, and especially among 

 the archipelagos in the central portion of its course. Notwithstanding these ex- 

 ceptions, which cannot be further noticed in this abstract, it assumes the true character 

 of a strong westerly stream about the islands north-east of Australia, and a portion 

 passing to north-west by the New Hebrides and New Caledonia, has been termed 

 Rossel's Drift; but this portion is not constant. It runs strongly past the north 

 coast of New Guinea, but between the neighbourhood of the New Hebrides and 

 Torres Strait there does not appear to be any well-marked current. A portion of 

 the South Equatorial Current, south of New Caledonia, is turned to W.S.W. to- 

 wards the Australian coast, and thence descends to the southward, a warm stream 

 of 1 or 2 miles an hour, to the southern part of Australia, where it turns eastward, 

 joined by the current through Bass's Strait and south of Van Dieraen's Land. 

 Thus, on a minor scale, it resembles the Atlantic Gulf-stream or the Brazil current, 

 and appears to circulate around the space between New Zealand and Austraha. 



The Northern Equatorial Current flows from east to west in the Pacific, between 

 lats. 10° N. and 24° N. There is a paucity of observations on the eastern portions 

 of its course, and it has no well-marked commencement, as is the case with the 

 Southern Equatorial Current ; but it is strong and regular in many portions of its 

 progress, and it may be traced with great exactness through the various ranges of 

 islands which it traverses (the authorities for which were cited) ; and having brought 

 the great mass of tropical waters across the breadth of the North Pacific, and, as is 

 the case with the southern portion, with a gradual augmentation of heat, it has been 

 usual to consider that it then passed onwards through the Asiatic archipelago. But 

 in giving a connected view of the Pacific currents, it is confidently stated that some 

 very important branches of the subject have been entirely overlooked, or only slightly 

 hinted at. Two currents, at least, of immense magnitude have not yet appeared on 

 our physical charts, and were placed for the first time in a Directory for the Pacific 

 Ocean, in 1851, by the author. The authorities and details for these currents were 

 laid before the meeting. One of these is a great belt of water lying under the zone 

 of tropical calms, and flowing to the eastward ; and a second was a Gulf- stream of 

 the Pacific, hinted at by M. Tessan in 1837-44 as perhaps existing in the central 

 portion, but which was here traced to Japan, and hence named the Japanese 

 current. 



The Japanese current is a continuation of the Northern Equatorial Drift, which 

 being obstructed by the Philippine Islands, turns to the northward towards the 

 Loochoo Islands and Japan, off the south coast of which it is a most violent north- 

 easterly stream, as was demonstrated from the Japanese charts of Von Siebold and 

 Krusenstern, the observations of Capts. King and Gore, Krusenstern, Broughton, and 

 others. Its further course is manifest from the dense fogs entered by Capt. Beechey, 

 anditreaches the shores of Kara tschatka, as shown by M. de Tessan. Japanese junks 

 have been drifted and wrecked on Kamtschatka, on Kodiack, at Oregon, and at the 

 Sandwich Islands— all evidences of the easterly set, and we have the observations of 

 Admiral Du Petit Thouars, as recorded by M. de 7"essan, for its central portion. 

 On its reaching the shores of America, it turns to southward, like the Gulf-stream, 

 andflowing southwards past the coast ofCahfornia, a portion continues towards central 

 America ; but the chief portion re-enters the equatorial current past the Sandwich 

 Islands — a fact proved by the pine timber of N.W. America drifting on to the 

 eastern sides of that archipelago. This current, here imperfectly developed, it is 

 true, must be an important assistance to vessels proceeding from China towards 

 Oregon, California, or Panama, following as it does the great circle route between 

 these places. It is thus shown that the waters of the Pacific circulate around the 

 parallels of 30° N, and S. as axes. 



Between these two systems of revolution there exists another important current, 

 here named the Equatorial Counter Current, from its relation to the great tropical 

 or westerly drifts on either side of it. It is an easterly stream setting across the 



