On the general Causes of the Ocean-Cukrents. 51 



streams caused by the winds, the reaction-streams, and also the in my 

 opinion most mighty of the ocean-currents, viz: the deep streams towards 

 the equator ^jroduced by evaporation and rainfalL 



Ahhough I am fully persuaded, that many particular phœnomena 

 concerning the ocean-currents, with which I have been here engaged, 

 might receive their proper illustration by the application of the princi- 

 ples above laid down, as also that the phœnomena of the ocean-currents 

 in other parts of the ocean than the North-Atlantic may be explained 

 by them, I confine myself here to the general application of these prin- 

 ciples, which I have already made, partly because this has been sufficient 

 for my main purpose, and partly because my time, occupied as it is by 

 quite different objects, does not for the present admit of my extending 

 this investigation further. This last circumstance is also the reason, why 

 I have not more perfectly touched upon the works on the same subject 

 put forth by other investigators of nature. The observations of the 

 water's saltness round the Swedish coasts, that I have from time to time 

 for several years collected, have in fact only lately led me to endeavour 

 to deduce from them results of more general importance, and if in set- 

 ting forth these I had been able to pay to the literature of the subject 

 as much attention as might have been desirable, I should have been 

 obliged to defer their publication to an undetermined time. If therefore, 

 as may very possibly be the case, I may have happened to overlook any 

 important matter, which has been illustrated by others, I must beg that 

 the circumstances here mentioned may be taken as an explanation of 

 the omission. 



The author, whom I have principally studied, and whose name I 

 can not mention without a feeling of revence for his genius and activity, 

 and of thankfulness for what I have learned from him, is Maury. With 

 the noblest devotion to his subject and led by the true instinct of the 

 student of nature to examine everything, he endeavoured to take into 

 account all circumstances, which might contribute, however little, to the 

 explanation of the currents and circulation of the Ocean. The original 

 dependence of these on the unequal distribution of the solar heat he 

 most profoundly comprehended, and being thoroughly acquainted with 

 the phœnomena of the ocean, the differences between the streams, that 

 arise in salt and in fresh water, were well known to him. But just this 

 last circumstance seems to have led him, amongst the many various 

 effects, into which the influence of the solar heat on the ocean divides 



