chap, vin.] THE GULF-STREAM. 385 



his address to the Royal Institution, Dr. Carpenter 

 states, that " the Gulf-stream constitutes a peculiar 

 case, modified by local conditions," of " a great 

 general movement of equatorial water towards the 

 polar area." I confess I feel myself compelled to 

 take a totally different view. It seems to me that 

 the Gulf-stream is the one natural physical pheno- 

 menon on the surface of the earth whose origin and 

 principal cause, the drift of the trade-winds, can be 

 most clearly and easily traced. 



The further progress and extension of the Gulf- 

 stream through the North Atlantic in relation to 

 influence upon climate has been, however, a fruitful 

 source of controversy. The first part of its course, 

 after leaving the strait, is sufficiently evident, for 

 its water long remains conspicuously different in 

 colour and temperature from that of the ocean, 

 and a current having a marked effect on naviga- 

 tion is long perceptible in the peculiar Gulf-stream 

 water. " Narrow at first, it flows round the penin- 

 sula of Florida, and, with a speed of about 70 or 

 80 miles, follows the coast at first in a due north, 

 afterwards in a north-east direction. At the lati- 

 tude of Washington it leaves the North American 

 coast altogether, keeping its north-eastward course ; 

 and to the south of the St. George's and New- 

 foundland Banks it spreads its waters more and 

 more over the Atlantic Ocean, as far as the A cores. 

 At these islands a part of it turns southwards again 

 towards the African coast. The Gulf-stream has, 

 so long as its waters are kept together along the 

 American coast, a temperature of 26°'6 C. ; but, 

 even under north latitude 36°, Sabine found that 



c c 



