70 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



and his imagination is excited at once by these opening 

 sentences: ''There is a river in the ocean. In the 

 severest droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest 

 floods it never overflows. Its banks and its bottom are 

 of cold water, while its current is of warm. The Gulf of 

 Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic 

 Seas. It is the Gulf Stream. There is in the world no 

 other such majestic flow of waters. Its current is more 

 rapid than the Mississippi or the Amazon, and its volume 

 more than a thousand times greater". 



In the chapter on the "Influence of the Gulf Stream 

 upon Climates" is the followng striking passage on 

 whales and other animals of the sea: ''Now, the Western 

 Islands is the great place of resort for whales: and at 

 first there is something curious to us in the idea that the 

 Gulf of Mexico is the harvest-field, and the Gulf Stream 

 the gleaner which collects the fruitage planted there, and 

 conveys it thousands of miles off to the hungry whale at 

 sea. But how perfectly in unison is it with the kind and 

 providential care of that great and good Being which 

 feeds the young ravens when they cry, and caters for the 

 sparrow. . . . 



"The inhabitants of the ocean are as much the crea- 

 tures of climate as are those of the dry land ; for the same 

 Almighty hand, which decked the lily and cares for the 

 sparrow, fashioned also the pearl and feeds the great 

 whale, and adapted each to the physical conditions by 

 which His providence has surrounded it. Whether of 

 the land or the sea, the inhabitants are all His creatures, 

 subjects of His laws, and agents of His economy. The 

 sea, therefore, we may safely infer, has its offices and 

 duties to perform; so, may we infer, have its currents, 

 and so, too, its inhabitants; consequently, he who under- 



