INTRODUCTION. ut 
it changes its direction, crosses the Atlantic at its widest part, from 
east to west, and runs up the Brazil coast, where it divides into 
two parts. The branch current is called the Aguznoctial. The 
main stream continues its northerly course along the coasts of 
Brazil and Guiana, enters the sea of the Antilles, turns towards the 
Bay of Honduras, and sweeps round the Gulf of Mexico. Taking 
then the name of the Gulf Stream, it comes out of the Bahama 
Channel, and flows, much enlarged and with greater velocity, towards 
the north east. The rapidity of its current exceeds that of either 
the Mississippior the Amazon. It is said that it runs at the rate of 
fifty miles anhour. There is not upon earth a more majestic stream 
of water. The Gulf Stream casts itself into the Atlantic Ocean, and 
the last of its waters are found on the eastern coasts of Spitzbergen. 
The current is warm. By cleverly steering his vessel along the 
margin of this marine river, a seaman can dip one hand into the 
warm water of the current, and the other into the cold water of the 
ocean. Remarkable instances of pieces of wrecks transported from 
very distant scenes of the disaster by the Gulf Streams are re- 
corded. Some portions of the 77z/éury, an English man-of-war 
which was burnt near Jamaica, were cast upon the shores of Scot- 
land! General Sabine, in 1822, saw a vessel wrecked at Cape 
Lopez, in Africa, near the equator, and when visiting Hammerfest, 
in Norway, the next year, casks of palm oil, part of that vessel’s 
cargo, were cast ashore! The current of the Indian Ocean flows 
towards the east, until it encounters the coast of New Holland. 
Part of its waters run along the south of that continent, and joins 
the current which flows in the Pacific Ocean. The other part turns 
to the north, and, following the equator from east to west, bends to 
the southward, passes between Africa and Madagascar, rounds the 
Cape of Good Hope, and enters the current of the Atlantic. The 
power of these currents cannot be estimated, for, as Pindar rightly 
says, “ Water, in motion, is not only the most important, but also 
the most powerful and terrible of the elements.” 
The sea freezes at the Poles, and assumes then a peculiar 
aspect. This phenomenon takes place as the sea becomes less salt, 
and the rotatory movement of the earth less rapid. As low as 
the fortieth degree of latitude masses of floating ice are found. 
