206 THE GULF STREAM. 
‘‘We cressed the stream six times in this locality, under conditions 
of weather from a calm to a strong breeze, and always crossed, near the 
center of the stream, bands of rippling water several miles in width. 
It is very like the rip at the entrance to Long Island Sound.” 
The Gulf stream flows at the rate of about one-fourth of a mile an 
hour through the Yucatan Channel, whichis 90 miles wide and over 1,000 
fathoms deep. Through the Straits of Bemini it has a velocity of from 
4 to 5 knots, a width of 50 miles, and an average depth of 350 fathoms. 
This velocity rapidly decreases as we go north. Off St. Augustine 
it is rarely more than 4 miles; from there to New York it decreases 
to 24 miles per hour; off the banks of Newfoundland it is reduced to 
14 or 1 miles; and ata distance of 300 miles to the eastward the velocity 
of the Gulf Stream, which has constantly been spreading out fan- 
shaped, is scarcely perceptible. 
As far as the current observations of the Blake may be trusted, they 
indicate a greater speed in the axis of the Gulf Stream than along its 
edges—a velocity varying between 2 miles an hour, or even less, and 
fully 5 miles. The width of the stream off the east coast south of Hat- 
teras varies from 50 to nearly 100 miles. 
The observations of the Blake show that the bottom of the Gulf 
stream along the Blake Plateau is swept clean of slime and ooze, and 
is nearly barren of animal life. 
