Behavior of the Atlantic : 49 



acclaimed as feats of exploration are now routine assignments. All 

 this will result in a new formulation of information on Arctic 

 weather, winds and currents. 



With the winds systems of the North Atlantic in mind it is easy 

 to understand the main features of the current system, for the latter 

 is a result of the former. Owing to the fact that water is a denser, 

 steadier and literally more conservative element than the air, the great 

 ocean currents move with a regularity, a far-reaching influence, a 

 persistent majesty that make the wind systems seem flighty and tem- 

 peramental. The wind systems can blow over the land as well as the 

 water and they are re-formed by influence of the land; the ocean cur- 

 rents are confined to the ocean basins and are therefore more highly 

 organized. Also contributing to this organization is the fact that the 

 ocean currents are more directly responsive to earth's gravitational 

 and rotational forces. For all these reasons we should not expect the 

 ocean currents, even the wind-driven currents, to correspond exactly 

 with the pattern of the winds. It is the surface currents created di- 

 rectly or indirectly by winds that we shall chiefly notice but there are 

 also currents that chiefly appear because of the earth's rotational 

 force and thermal currents due to the slow heating and cooling of 

 great masses of water. These types of currents affect not only the sur- 

 face of the sea but its depths also. It takes a thick volume even to 

 begin to describe the form and behavior of ocean currents so great is 

 their variety and so complex their behavior. Fortunately, it is enough 

 for our purpose to note their general form and a few special circum- 

 stances. 



Along the equator there are in mid-Atlantic no special currents to 

 note. Under the northeast trades lies the North Equatorial Current 

 flowing straight to the west. A part of this current turns northwest as 

 it approaches the West Indies and flows north of the Windward Islands 

 and east of the Bahamas, where it becomes the Bahama Current. 

 North of the islands this current flows along beside the Florida Cur- 

 rent which has come northward between the Bahamas and Florida. 

 They mingle and bend toward the northeast and east and are here 

 together called the Gulf Stream. In mid-Atlantic again this great flow 

 of water loses some of its speed and spreads out and is now known 

 as the North Atlantic Drift. Progressively as it moves along parts of 

 this drift turn southeast and south and rejoin the North Equatorial 

 Current. One branch continues east until it strikes the African coast 

 and bends south through the Canary Islands where it joins the colder 

 waters of the Canary Current; but an important part of these joined 



