24 Natural History Bulletin. 



One of the best proofs of Darwin's moral greatness is the 

 fact that, during the voyage ot the •• Beagle," he was always 

 seasick when the weather was at all rough, and vet had the 

 sublime force of character to keep constantly at work, accom- 

 plishing more in the way of collecting and observing than anv 

 other naturalist has done in the same length of time. 



On Mondav. ?vlav 8th. the Gulf Stream was entered. The 

 wind having been high during the night, the water was decid- 

 edly •■ lumpy " in the morning, much to the distress of the 

 miserable seasick victims. 



Sir Wyville Thomson^ calls the Gulf Stream " one of the 

 most marvelous things in the ocean " and •• probably the most 

 glorious natural phenomenon on the face of the earth."- It 

 forms the subject of some of the most interesting chapters in 

 the modern science of thalassography.'^ 



To quote from Sir W^'ville Thomson's " Depths of the 

 Sea." " Mr. Croll calculates the Gulf Stream as equal to a 

 stream of water fiftv miles broad and a thousand feet deep, 

 flowing at a rate of four miles an hour; consequently convey- 

 ing 5,575,680.000.000 cubic feet of water per hour, or 133.- 

 816,320,000,000 cubic feet per dav. This mass of water has 

 a mean temperature of 18" C. as it passes out of the Gulf, 

 and on its northern journev it is cooled down to 4". 5 C 

 The total quantity of heat therefore transferred from the 

 equatorial regions per dav amounts to something like 154.- 

 959.300.000.000.000.000 foot pounds." This, he says, is 

 enough heat to equal the entire amount received from the sun 

 by the arctic regions. 



It has been mv fortune to cross the Gulf Stream ten times 

 between longitude 70'' and 76" W. On at least six of these 

 occasions, the weather was decidedly squally, and on three 

 severe storms were encountered. Sailors always feel a decided 

 relief when thev get across " the Gulf," as it is called. This 

 great volume of warm water coming into cooler latitudes thus 



1 " Depths of the Sea," page 36G. 



2 Loc. cit. Chapter VIII. 



s " Three Cruises of the Blake," Chapter XI ; "\'oyage of tlie Challenger," Atlan- 

 tic. Vol. I, Chapter 5. The condensed statements wliich follow are hased on facts 

 taken from these sources, unless otherwise indicated. 



