94 Temperature Sections Stirveyed. 



temperature of the surface-stratum of the Agulhas Current to a 

 depth of 20 fathoms was found to be 2 2°. 2 C. A portion of this 

 current, however, may be found in the shape of an under-current 

 for a distance of about 150 miles to westward of the Cape, as 

 will appear on comparing the two Curves A and B, Fig. 5. 

 The undulating form of Curve B indicates, as pointed out on a 

 previous occasion, the presence of contending currents, which, 

 being split asunder during the encounter, form alternate currents 

 of warm and cold water flowing side by side and one above 

 the other. 



A portion of the Agulhas Current is probably carried by 

 the Antarctic Current past the Cape and northward along the 

 west coast of the African continent, but by far the greater portion 

 is turned back and flows eastward, partly mixing with the cold 

 current of the Southern Ocean, partly as an under-current. 

 The latter seems to divide off the Crozet Islands into two 

 branches, one of which continues its eastward course, while the 

 other flows in a south-easterly direction towards the opening 

 between Kemp Land and Wilkes' Termination Land, explored 

 by H.M.S. "Challenger." 



Near the Cape of Good Hope the forces of the Agulhas 

 Current and of the Antarctic Current are so evenly balanced that, 

 as appears from the above table. False Bay, which includes 

 Simons Bay, is alternately occupied by branches of the warm 

 or of the cold current, according as the wind blows from the 

 south-east or from the north-west. During the prevalence of 

 the former wind, a warm current is observed to flow from Cape 

 Agulhas towards Cape Point, or from east to west, and False 

 Bay is occupied by a branch of the Agulhas Current ; during the 

 prevalence of the latter, a cold current circles round the bay 

 from west to east, and the bay is taken possession of by the 

 Antarctic Current. A prevailing north or north-west wind 

 drives the warm water out of False Bay, the bottom of 



