cf a direct Passage over ifte Pole. SOI 



to feel llie force of the great iivder flow of cold fluid froiil the 

 north, which brings the ice bergs down to 39^ or 40" of latitude, 

 they would move in an east sontherly direction. It seems there- 

 fore reasonable to suppose, that there may still be the remains 

 of a northerly movement of water, at and very near the surface, 

 to cause bodies floating there, to make course, as some have done, 

 to the north even of E.N.E. from Newfoundland, The great 

 body of the gulf-stream is, however, much reduced in tempera- 

 tu'.e about the Banks of Newfoundland ; and in proportion as it 

 feels the cold of the great under-flow from the north, it is turned 

 <>rcdually to the eastward and southward past the Western Islands. 

 V/hether any part of it reaches the coasts of England, France, 

 Portugal or Sj)aiu, is a point much disputed. It is possible, 

 however, that it may, diverging as it appears to do to the east- 

 ward and southward, some of the fluid that composed it mai/ find 

 its way to the northward of Cape Finisterre, and add something 

 to the great bodv of water which the western swell heaves into 

 the Bay of Biscay; and proceeding to the northward along the 

 coast of France, sets over from Ushant beyond Cape Clear; till 

 meeting in that quarter witli a fluid below, of a colder degree 

 than its own, perhaps gradually joins the polar stream to the 

 southward according to its depth and temperature. Some of the 

 waters of the gulf stream it is possible (though hardly that), may 

 assist in supplying the water expended by evaporation in the Me- 

 diterranean, whose surface, therefore, it is presumed, must be 

 lower than that of the Atlantic, as the constant current setting 

 into it, seems to prove. Some philosophers, indeed, suppose 

 that the (juantity of water continually admitted through the Gut 

 cf Gibraltar into the .Mediterranean, is greater than can be ex- 

 pended by evaporation ; and that th?rerore, there must be a 

 f'iunler current setting out vnderneath. To establish this opi- 

 jvjtn, it sci?ms necessary first to prove that the temperatiu'e of 

 t!ie MeHiterranean is lower generally than that of the Atlantic 

 which flows into into it. For, if it is higher, (as is more prc- 

 liable,) t!ie surplus (if there was any, and allowing their surfaces 

 to be equal) would, I presume, run out at the surface, and the sup- 

 ply be received in underneath; which is contrary to fact — though 

 1 have supposed it barely pos ible, that some of the gulf stream 

 rnajj cross the Atlantic, 1 by no means say that it is so. On the 

 contrary, it is little felt by ships far to the eastward of the Azores; 

 hut in the vicinity of those islands, the S.E. portion of it gradually 

 turns to the soutliward, and a-j it advances in that direction, soon 

 feeling the impulse again of the grand equinoctial current, is 

 compelled tc partake of its western motion. Thus forming a 

 (Bort of circular eddy, which may be comprised between the lati- 

 tude 



