426 Capt.Sabine’s Summary of the Currents experienced 
runs with-considerable rapidity in the direction of the land, 
round Cape Palmas to the eastern parts of the Gulf of Guinea. 
The breadth of this current abreast of Cape Palmas varies with 
the season, and has been found as much as 180 miles; but, in 
its subsequent course to the eastward, it enlarges to nearly 
300, and occupies the whole space between the land on one 
side, and the equatorial current running in an opposite direc- 
tion on the other; the velocity abreast of Cape Palmas and 
Cape Three Points, and in the vicinity of the land, was in May, 
about two knots an hour; and further to the eastward, where 
the Pheasant crossed its breadth from Cape Formosa to St. 
Thomas, and where its velocity had been much diminished by 
the dissipation of its waters, it was found still to preserve a 
general rate of rather less than a mile an hour; and a direc- 
tion, a few degrees to the southward of east. Between Cape 
Three Points and Lagos, the observations were suspended in 
consequence of the greater part of the officers and men being 
absent in the boats, examining merchant-vessels anchored on 
the coast, and suspected of being engaged in the trade in 
slaves. The little effect of the current experienced between 
the 8th and 9th of May, was occasioned by the slack water in 
the Lagos bight, from which the Pheasant did not re-enter 
the fair stream until the morning of the 9th. There appears 
to have been a southerly deflection between the 10th and 11th, 
for which no very obvious reason presents itself. The general 
temperature of the stream in the mid-channel in the Gulf of 
Guinea, in April and May, exceeds 84 degrees, diminishing 
to 82 and 83 on its southérn border, where it is in contact 
with the colder water of the equatorial current; and occasion- 
ally to 79°, and frequently to between 79° and 81°-5, on its 
northern side, in the proximity of land. 
In the passage from the coast of Africa to the Island of 
Ascension, the Pheasant appears to have entered the equatorial 
current, almost immediately after her departure from the en- 
trance of the River Gaboon; as she was decidedly under its 
influence when passing the southern extremity of the island of ~ 
St. Thomas. This current is formed by the drift-water im- 
pelled by the trade-winds in the southern Atlantic (which in 
the neighbourhood of the continent of Africa are very much 
southwardly) towards the eastern part or head of the Gulf 
of Guinea; where, being opposed by the waters brought. to 
the same spot by the Guinea current, the drift-water streams 
off in the direction of the equator, and principally on its southern 
side; and being continually fed in its western progress by the 
drift from the S.E. (becoming more and more inclined to the 
meridian, as the influence of the continent on the regular di- 
rection 
