OCEAN CURRENTS 175 



described by Smyth, who worked there from 1810 to 1824. 

 The main stream runs in from tlie Atlantic tlirough the Straits 

 of Gibraltar, and then in an easterly direction along the north 

 coast of Algeria, round the corner at Tunis, and so south, past 

 Sicily and Malta, to the Gulf of Sidra. Thence it flows along 

 the Tripoli coast until it attains the harbour of Port Said. 

 After this its direction is northerly along the Levant, and so 

 along the south coast of Asia Minor, its direction now being 

 westerly. It now runs past Crète on both sides, then north- 

 west into the lonian Sea. In the Adriatic the current has a 

 circular counter-clockwise direction, up (northerly) along the 

 Dalmatian coast, down (southerly) along the Italian coast. 



The main current runs north-west in the Tyrrhenian Sea, 

 west through the Gulf of Genoa, finally completing the circle 

 by a south-westerly run along the Spanish coast. 



Although Smyth's description of the counter-clockwise 

 current is, in the main, correct, there are sundry points of 

 détail which do not quite fît in with the gênerai scheme. The 

 currents in the Mediterranean are to a large extent pure drift 

 currents — i.e., dépendent on the wind — and so vary from place 

 to place. Nearly a century after Smyth's observations, the 

 Danish investigation steamer Thor traced this current, which 

 contained Atlantic plankton, along the north coast of Africa, 

 in the gênerai direction indicated by Smyth, as far as the Nile 

 Delta. 



The counter-clockwise current in the Adriatic has already 

 been mentioned. The northerly current is noticeable off the 

 lonian Islands ; ofï Corfu a brandi is given off towards Cape 

 San Maria di Leuca, but the main stream runs up past Cape 

 Glossa. Along the whole coast of Albania and Dalmatia the 

 gênerai tendency is to the north-west. The current is defiected 

 by the Istrian peninsula, and then runs along the east coast of 

 Italy to the Straits of Otranto, where it unités with the currents 

 running westerly from Corfu and Eano. 



In the A^gean Sea the prevailing wind in summer is a 

 strong northerly one (the Meltemia), and this produces on the 



